ScienceAlert: Early Humans May Have Hibernated Through Long Winters, Study Hints

Ravn

Ravn

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Mainly posting for the irresistible headline :slugish::woot::laugh:

Just as I got used to seeing myself as a dauering - is that a word? - nematode I may have to readjust my self-image to prehistoric fossil, or rather to semi-incompetent-at-hibernating prehistoric fossil. Stuff those illness beliefs...
While many of us might long to just sleep through this entire winter , humans - unlike a lot of other mammals - do not have the capacity to hibernate.

But a newly published study has investigated if early humans had this ability at some point. The results - although preliminary - surprisingly suggest that they did, even if they were not great at it.
[...]
We will need a lot more info before we can confirm if these ancient human ancestors were indeed hibernating, and if it was the case, how human species ended up losing the ability entirely.
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Hmm.... but did we? :asleep::bear:

https://www.sciencealert.com/early-humans-may-have-hibernated-through-long-winters

Link to study (all about old bones, perhaps unsurprisingly):

Antonis Bartsiokas, Juan-Luis Arsuaga
Hibernation in hominins from Atapuerca, Spain half a million years ago/Hibernation des hominidés d’Atapuerca, en Espagne, il y a un demi-million d’années
L'Anthropologie, Volume 124, Issue 5, 2020

Abstract in English, Sci-Hub goes to the wrong article.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003552120300832#!
 
I was thinking how nice a good long hibernation would be, then I thought what it would be like when I woke up. It would not be two or three hours to come too, but two or three months. (A single night at a time of unresfreshing sleep is enough for me.)
 
Animals that hibernate have to acquire lots of fat during the summer to keep them alive during the winter, don't they? If that was true for humans it would change the entire nature of human life, human fashion and what makes a mate desirable. Who wants to hibernate with their partner only to wake up with a dead body that had starved to death? ;)

Edit : Typo
 
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I take back the ancient fossil thing - looks like what we're really doing is training for a mission to Mars :alien:.
By better understanding these processes in mice and other animal models, the authors envision the possibility of one day working toward inducing torpor in humans — an achievement that could have a vast array of applications, such as preventing brain injury during stroke, enabling new treatments for metabolic diseases or even helping NASA send humans to Mars.
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https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/st...rol-hibernation-like-behavior-are-discovered/

We also have this thread on mouse torpor neurons:
https://www.s4me.info/threads/neurons-that-regulate-mouse-torpor-2020-hrvatin-et-al.15514/
 
Arnie Pye said:
Animals that hibernate have to acquire lots of fat during the summer to keep them alive during the winter, don't they? If that was true for humans it would change the entire nature of human life, human fashion and what makes a mate desirable. Who wants to hibernate with their partner only to wake up with a dead body that had starved to death? ;)

Edit : Typo
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I would cope very well with hibernation.
 
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