Stromatolites are thought to have produce most/all of the oxygen we use today, and they are still around in Shark Bay, Australia. However, I'm over this discussion. Were arguing over the definition of purpose and the philosophy around it and it's really not that important.

We're too genetically different to interbreed with them, Servius.

Science says otherwise. Recent studies have found that 1-4% of DNA from certain groups of humans are from Neanderthals.  Source

EDIT: Interesting note, scientists believe some of the major differences in DNA between us and Neanderthals is in the bone structure and cognitive areas. So that could mean despite brains that appear similar, and even a bit larger in terms of brain mass/body mass, they may think very differently from us and could never understand the world like we do.

That could be what we shared with our common ancestor. You do know that we share DNA with bananas as well?

LOL, we share more like 50% of our DNA with Bananas. They found specific genes that we share with them and not with every other animal.

EDIT: When I said them, I was referring to Neanderthals. Sorry for the wrong pronoun usage.

I wouldn't bring back a Neanderthal for the sake of just doing it.  Having a Neanderthal to study could help us cure psychological or infectious diseases.

I'm now extremely curious as to what is in that 50%. I'm betting transposons and repeat sequences make up the bulk of it, but thats without going on medline and finding the reference. When somebody says there is similarity, I go OF COURSE there is similarity. Its been recently shown by statistical inference that all extant life began as one lineage (as opposed to multiple origins and interbreeding), so go back far enough and everything living is directly related. But if it really is specific things, I'd like to know why THEY were conserved and not other things, and why they were specifically conserved in this branch of the animals.

LOL. But it fits the hand!

Please tell me I don't have to go all evolutionary on this and explain why its hogwash... wild bananas look completely different than the selectively bred chiquita 'Cavendish' varietal which was largely invented by the indigenous people of what is now Papua / New Guinea.

Every fruit has a consumer that directed its evolution. In the case of avocados, it's an extinct sloth.

Is there any way to take karma away from someone?

No reason. Just asking.

I think life, or existence itself, is a gift. Giving life to something, no matter the reasons, is the greatest act of kindness. Would you rather live a mostly comfortable life being pricked and prodded every day, or not exist at all? Live in a bubble, or never have a chance? Pretty simple to me, and the fact that it could potentially help millions of people, if not all of them, is simply a bonus.

Have you learned nothing from Jurassic Park. Nature always finds a way. The neanderthals were planning this all along.... waiting all these years for humans to bring them back to life  so they can get their revenge.

If that shows up as a new movie on the SciFi channel, remember you heard it here first!

 As Phil Oaks sang, "Knock On The Door"

[With a knock on the door, knock on the door.
Here they come to take one more,
One more]

Politicians or Red Necks?

A gift from your parents, or whoever put your cells together in a petri dish. Don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist, I meant nothing religious in my post. Why do I think it's a gift? Are you serious? You would rather not have been born? I dunno about anyone else, but I could have been born in a cage and whipped every day of my life and I'd still be glad I was alive.

Life: The condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms.

I did say existence itself though, if rocks could think they should be happy their atoms and molecules came together as they did. The universe is a volatile place, the fact that anything exists at all is incredible.