Editing 2608: Family Reunion
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by THE GIRL YOU DIDN'T KNOW WAS YOUR RELATIVE (WHOOPS) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
Because all humans are descended from a {{w|Mitochondrial Eve|common ancestor}}, every human is, at some point, related to every other human, albeit distantly. Similarly, all life forms on Earth are presumed (with good reasons) to be descended from a single {{w|Most recent common ancestor|even more distant relative}} whose ultimate lineage {{w|Last universal common ancestor|became more relevant}} than any from its own 'cousins' at the time, and thus ''all'' life forms are distantly related. This makes every interaction with another life-form, technically, a family reunion, if not in the traditional sense. | Because all humans are descended from a {{w|Mitochondrial Eve|common ancestor}}, every human is, at some point, related to every other human, albeit distantly. Similarly, all life forms on Earth are presumed (with good reasons) to be descended from a single {{w|Most recent common ancestor|even more distant relative}} whose ultimate lineage {{w|Last universal common ancestor|became more relevant}} than any from its own 'cousins' at the time, and thus ''all'' life forms are distantly related. This makes every interaction with another life-form, technically, a family reunion, if not in the traditional sense. | ||
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The general English definition of a {{w|cousin}}, which is a person sharing an ancestor who is not a direct parent of either party, can be qualified by two numbers. There is the ''n''th-ness of the relationship (the fewest generations you need to go beyond one's parentage, "a first cousin" implies that a grandparent is the key link) - for example, [[Cueball|this Cueball's]] relation to [[White Hat]] is via a great-grandparent, whilst that with [[Hairbun]] is through a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent. A "removed" number is any difference in this number between the two individuals, such that a child of a direct cousin invokes a "once removed" relationship between the two (without individually qualifying who is the 'senior' generation, from whom the 'nth' count is determined). You would normally only qualify "first cousin" if this fact is considered important, and "zero times removed" would also be considered implicit. | The general English definition of a {{w|cousin}}, which is a person sharing an ancestor who is not a direct parent of either party, can be qualified by two numbers. There is the ''n''th-ness of the relationship (the fewest generations you need to go beyond one's parentage, "a first cousin" implies that a grandparent is the key link) - for example, [[Cueball|this Cueball's]] relation to [[White Hat]] is via a great-grandparent, whilst that with [[Hairbun]] is through a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent. A "removed" number is any difference in this number between the two individuals, such that a child of a direct cousin invokes a "once removed" relationship between the two (without individually qualifying who is the 'senior' generation, from whom the 'nth' count is determined). You would normally only qualify "first cousin" if this fact is considered important, and "zero times removed" would also be considered implicit. | ||
− | + | As pointed out in the title text, cat lifespans (or, more importantly, inter-generational breeding cycles) are somewhat different from those of humans. Although they would have still been very similar immediately after the divergence from the appropriate MRCA, the differences will have built up to a generational-count displacement of a similarly extreme nature. i.e. that while the shared ancestor is Cueball's 17-million-or-so-Great Grandparent, the cat is in turn the 31-million-or-so-Great Grandchild. Exactly how accurate, or even precise, Randall considers these numbers is unknown, but it is the kind of fact that we know he likes to research and use expert opinion for. | |
− | + | According to [https://www.quora.com/How-many-generations-of-human-beings-recognizably-the-same-as-us-have-there-been this Quora page], there have been about 13,000 generations of modern humans, so the people at this party would be quite closely related, all things considered. | |
[https://www.evogeneao.com/en/learn/tree-of-life The Evogeneao Tree of Life diagram] indicates that humans and cats diverged around 90 million years ago and humans and plants diverged around 1.8 billion years ago. | [https://www.evogeneao.com/en/learn/tree-of-life The Evogeneao Tree of Life diagram] indicates that humans and cats diverged around 90 million years ago and humans and plants diverged around 1.8 billion years ago. | ||
− | If we presume that generations of humans (including proto-humans, pre-humans, etc) since the divergence from cathood (including proto-cats, pre-cats, and the rest, back to the common ancestral form) have averaged around 5 years, then a 17 millionth cousin may be about right. Many of our (and cats') early ancestors will have necessarily been small burrowing mammals — to have been amongst the ones who survived the asteroid | + | If we presume that generations of humans (including proto-humans, pre-humans, etc) since the divergence from cathood (including proto-cats, pre-cats, and the rest, back to the common ancestral form) have averaged around 5 years, then a 17 millionth cousin may be about right. Many of our (and cats') early ancestors will have necessarily been small burrowing mammals — to have been amongst the ones who survived the asteroid that killed off most of the dinosaurs — with contemporary equivalents having breeding cycles in terms of a year at the most. But we currently have a large feasible range of generational cycle (15-50 years, ''very'' roughly, with or without technical/social help or hinderances), that may have started to drag our long-term average upwards since at least the age of the early homonids, if not the age of our primate forebears or earlier. |
− | To get a 50 billionth cousin from the potted plant, then the generations of (eventually) humans since we were of the same form as that time's | + | To get a 50 billionth cousin from the potted plant, then the generations of (eventually) humans since we were of the same form as that time's ancestrial plants (or vice-versa) would need to average two weeks. This is possible, but difficult to be precise about due to the lack of much of the required evidence in the known fossilised remains. |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[Megan, White Hat, Cueball, Hairy, Danish, a | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Like seriously, don't}} |
+ | |||
+ | :[Megan, White Hat, Cueball, Hairy, Danish, a cat, Hairbun, a chair, and a potted plant on a cabinet are "standing" in a line. White Hat is holding a cup and Hairy has his hands to the side. There are arrows pointing to each of the living creatures.] | ||
:14th cousin [Megan] | :14th cousin [Megan] | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]] | ||
− | [[Category:Comics featuring | + | <!-- [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] Danish?--> |
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]] | ||
[[Category:Cats]] | [[Category:Cats]] | ||
[[Category:Biology]] | [[Category:Biology]] |