Posted on 10/29/2007 5:17:44 AM PDT by Renfield
ANSA) - Florence, October 26 - A new study of Neanderthal bones in Italy and Spain claims to have proved they did not breed with humans - potentially settling one of the biggest riddles in anthropology.
The DNA study, which involved Italian, Spanish and German scientists, examined fossilised bones found in the northern Italian mountains near Verona and a cave in Asturia, Spain.
Analysing a gene involved in the production of the skin pigment melanin, the team concluded that Neanderthals were predominantly fair-skinned and red-headed - like many people in countries like Ireland, Scotland and Wales today.
This was consistent with past studies which however suggested that inter-breeding could have produced today's traits - triggering vocal reactions in the countries concerned.
By contrast, the new study concluded that the Neanderthals developed the skin and hair traits on their own, and did not pass them on to any human group.
"The study enabled us to verify that the Neanderthals evolved these features independently of homo sapiens," said Florence University's David Caramelli, who led the Italian part of the research.
"We can therefore rule out any possible interbreeding between the two species," he said.
"The surprising thing is that there was a sort of evolutionary convergence in two species, independently of each other," Caramelli said.
The study, which appears in Friday's edition of the journal Science, comes less than a year after two leading US research groups came to opposing conclusions about the interbreeding question.
Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Antrhopology is currently trying to settle the issue by deciphering the Neanderthal genome.
The Neanderthals, who appeared about 150,000 years ago, became extinct some 15,000 years after homo sapiens migrated to Europe 40,000 years ago.
It is not known whether humans killed them, out-competed them, or simply watched them die out as their Ice Age- friendly characteristics became a liability.
Long a byword for caveman-like stupidity, the Neanderthal is now thought to have been an intelligent species which could speak and used fairly sophisticated tools. It shares 95% of its genes with humans.
Neanderthal ping.
I would hope the men bred with women.
You took the words right out of my mouf.
Maybe dere dnoses wer stuffed?
Back in the days when Irish Setters lived in fear?
Sorry, this is stupid. Even if you BELIEVED that they had proven that the two races weren’t just differences in genetic variation, that doesn’t show they didn’t interbreed, just that the amount of interbreeding was insignificant enough to prevent it from showing up in the small collection of fossils we can examine.
on the other hand, it does make the premise of the show “cave men” a bit less plausible :-)
At least one did. How else does one explain Chelsea?
Poor fellow. His evidence doesn't support his conclusion.
BS, just look at carvel???
Analysing a gene involved in the production of the skin pigment melanin, the team concluded that Neanderthals were predominantly fair-skinned and red-headed - like many people in countries like Ireland, Scotland and Wales today. This was consistent with past studies which however suggested that inter-breeding could have produced today's traits - triggering vocal reactions in the countries concerned.Yeah, and the Vikings never sacked, raped, pillaged, or burned anything. Oh yeah, and there were no slaves in ancient Egypt. More political seduction of the sciences.
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
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Thanks Renfield. |
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No such thing as a NILF?
Ummmmm, Webb Hubble?
Ummmmm, it's waht you get when two crooked layers breed...
I don’t believe this study proves that conclusion.
My dog is fearless ;-)
Considering sheep, goats, camels, horses, cows, dogs, chickens?!?, vacuum cleaners, and at least one case of a penguin, these guys are shading the truth.
Just because this batch of bones didn't show mixed genes doesn't mean that there was a whole lot of 'breeding' going on.
(I once even had one guy come into the ER with a 'penile fracture' caused by attempting to 'breed' with a knothole in a fence board!)
So, what they are saying is that from a few bones they found in Italy and Spain makes it a proven fact that Neanderthal and Humans did not interbreed.
I find that hard to believe!
A: Nobody knows. There are some things even a rat won't do.
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