Bajau tribe in Indonesia have uniquely evolved spleens giving them superior aquatic abilities
Matthew Yglesias is the longtime editor for the far leftwing tech blog Vox.
From his bio at Vox:
Matthew Yglesias co-founded Vox.com with Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell back in the spring of 2014. He’s currently a senior correspondent focused on politics and economic policy, and co-hosts The Weeds podcast twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Before launching Vox, he was the author of the Moneybag column for Slate and before that he wrote and blogged for Think Progress, The Atlantic, TPM, and The American Prospect.
Major Media journalist goes full Race Realist
Yglesias rocked the race realist world early Monday morning with a Tweet stating that “the Bajau people or Southeast Asia have evolved giant spleens that help them be the world’s best free divers.”
Human Bio-Diversity advocate and friend of this site Steve Sailer of Takimag.com was the first to notice it. He Tweeted:
“Yglesias goes HBD”
Bo Winegard, an evolutionary psychologist, formerly with the University of Marietta responded to Sailer’s Tweet:
“Lol, I was just about to say that Yglesias is a minute away from swallowing the red pill.”
One other Twitter user, Media Critic quickly snarked:
“Nice race science Matty”
About 30 other users similarly remarked on Yglesias going full race realist.
Yglesias was remarking on a research paper published in 2018 on the “Sea Nomads” at ScienceDirect.com:
Understanding the physiology and genetics of human hypoxia tolerance has important medical implications, but this phenomenon has thus far only been investigated in high-altitude human populations. Another system, yet to be explored, is humans who engage in breath-hold diving. The indigenous Bajau people (“Sea Nomads”) of Southeast Asia live a subsistence lifestyle based on breath-hold diving and are renowned for their extraordinary breath-holding abilities…
Using a comparative genomic study, we show that natural selection on genetic variants in the PDE10A gene have increased spleen size in the Bajau, providing them with a larger reservoir of oxygenated red blood cells.
We wrote on the Bajau people and their specially adapted abilities here at Subspecieist.com back in March of 2019.
Aquatic Ape theory proved right with amazing, specialized divers in Indonesia
“Aquatic ape theory (AAT) proposes that humans went through an aquatic or semi-aquatic stage in our evolution… the physical difference [between apes and humans] is due to the possibility that our ancestors lived a semi-aquatic existence, which involved activities such as wading, swimming, and diving.” — Biologywise.com
Sir Alister Hardy was a respected 20th century British marine biologist. He first suggested Aquatic Ape theory in 1960 but was almost immediately castigated by fellow academics and scientists.
Now more researchers have been trekking to the off-shore environs of Indonesia and the Philippines.
Bajau People with super-human abilities under-water
The Bajau people previously referred to as “sea gypsies,” are capable of spending 5 hours in the water in fishing expeditions. They spend an average of 29 seconds under water before coming up for a breath. Researchers have found they have larger spleens than their on-shore Indonesia neighbors. These adaptions could have come within the last 15,000 years, suggesting human evolution occurs much rapidly than previously believed.
“It has always seemed a good explanation to me for how our human ancestors might have adopted an upright stance.” — Sir David Attenborough, BBC
From Haikai Magazine, March 24, “Born to Swim”:
“In Southeast Asia, sea nomads known as the Bajau offer a glimpse into how humans may have adapted to an aquatic way of life…
A DNA analysis found that the Bajau had a higher frequency of a specific gene, PDE10A… The Bajau were also more likely to carry certain genes connected with an enhanced dive reflex and for preventing the build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood. According to the paper, the Bajau and their land-dwelling neighbors probably diverged 15,000 years ago, offering plenty of time for the development of specific adaptations for their oceanic lifestyle.”
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