Oldest DNA ever found sheds light on humans' global trek

www.centnews.com ^ | 2014-10-22 18:00:08 | Richard INGHAM

[Red Badger]

France - Scientists said Wednesday they had unravelled the oldest DNA ever retrieved from a Homo sapiens bone, a feat that sheds light on modern humans' colonisation of the planet.

A femur found by chance on the banks of a west Siberian river in 2008 is that of a man who died around 45,000 years ago, they said.

Teased out of collagen in the ancient bone, the genome contains traces from Neanderthals -- a cousin species who lived in Eurasia alongside H. sapiens before mysteriously disappearing.

Previous research has found that Neanderthals and H. sapiens interbred, leaving a tiny Neanderthal imprint of just about two percent in humans today, except for Africans.

The discovery has a bearing on the so-called "Out of Africa" scenario: the theory that H. sapiens evolved in East Africa around 200,000 years ago and then ventured out of the continent.

Dating when Neanderthals and H. sapiens interbred would also indicate when H. sapiens embarked on a key phase of this trek -- the push out of Eurasia and into South and later Southeast Asia.

The new study, published in the journal Nature, was headed by Svante Paabo, a renowned geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who has pioneered research into Neanderthals.

- Neanderthal interbreeding -

The bone found at the Irtyush River, near the settlement of Ust'-Ishim, carries slightly more Neanderthal DNA than non-Africans today, the team found.

But it takes the form of relatively long strips, whereas Neanderthal DNA in our genome today has been cut up and dispersed in tiny sections as a result of generations of reproduction.

These differences provide a clue for a "molecular calendar", or dating DNA according to mutations over thousands of years.

Using this method, Paabo's team estimate interbreeding between Neanderthals and H. sapiens occurred 7,000 to 13,000 years before the Siberian individual lived -- thus no more than 60,000 years ago.

This provides a rough date for estimating when H. sapiens headed into South Asia, Chris Stringer, a professor at Britain's Natural History Museum, said in a comment on the study.

If today's Australasians have Neanderthal DNA, it is because their forebears crossed through Neanderthal territory and mingled with the locals.

"The ancestors of Australasians, with their similar input of Neanderthal DNA to Eurasians, must have been part of a late, rather than early, dispersal through Neanderthal territory," Stringer said in a press release.

"While it is still possible that modern humans did traverse southern Asia before 60,000 years ago, those groups could not have made a significant contribution to the surviving modern populations outside of Africa, which contain evidence of interbreeding with Neanderthals."

Anthropologists suggest a northern branch of Eurasians crossed to modern-day Alaska more than 15,000 years ago via an "ice bridge" that connected islands in the Bering Strait, thus enabling H. sapiens to colonise the Americas.

[pierrem15]

I've read there's some genetic evidence that male offspring of a Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal would have been sterile.

So almost a separate species.

[Kenny Bunk]

That Neandertals and Cromagnons interbred is, IMNVHO, an established fact. Now the question becomes, "How well and how often did they interbreed?" Was the half-breed hybrid offspring successful? As a hybrid a Neandertal/Cromagnon cross might have been mostly sterile, like a horse/donkey cross. Maybe a few of the hybrids were able to breed, but bred with other Cromagnons, diluting the DNA.

E.G., they have spent years trying to crossbreed cattle and buffalo. Looks as if it would be easy, right? So nowadays, we are a modern human/Neandertal hybrid, but the Neandertal DNA is down to just a trace. So, like horse and donkey, we remain two separate species, and with just a trace, we identify with the Mod Hums.

PS:
Warning. All I know about anthropology and Paleontology, I learned from Red Badger and from the pamphlets in a Holiday Inn Express suite.

[Scoutmaster]

and from the pamphlets in a Holiday Inn Express suite.

Laz? That's where you left them.

[samtheman]

What about LGBT offspring?

[Nepeta]

That Neandertals and Cromagnons interbred is, IMNVHO, an established fact. Now the question becomes, "How well and how often did they interbreed?" Was the half-breed hybrid offspring successful? As a hybrid a Neandertal/Cromagnon cross might have been mostly sterile, like a horse/donkey cross.

Given the prevalence of Neanderthal DNA in world populations, the hybrids were anything but sterile.

[Kenny Bunk]

Given the prevalence of Neanderthal DNA in world populations, the hybrids were anything but sterile.

What I was attempting to ask, in my Holiday Inn Express-educated way was, "is it possible that the hybrids (i.e., Neander/Cromagnon) were not uniformly successful and that eventually the Neandertal portion of our DNA became sort of like, well, tiny?"

Also, are there populations around today where the Neandertal Quotient is much higher? Like take me, for instance. I have a long pointy nose and like really thin lips, a big cleft chin, but very prominent brow ridges. How much Neandertal DNA might I have? And, would a DNA test tell me how much?

Many women express an interest in redecorating my cave, but so far I have not had to club any of them.

[Nepeta]

How much Neandertal DNA might I have? And, would a DNA test tell me how much?

National Geographic's testing will tell you these things.

I am a PROUD descendant of the Serious Brow Ridge guys with 2.8 % Neanderthal in my makeup. I don't have a serious brow ridge. The average is about 2.1 %. I also have 4.1 % Denisovan ancestry, which is about twice the average amount.

[PIF]

I think the most telling DNA find would be one prior to the Toba eruption 74,000 BC. That is supposedly when homo sapiens sapiens lost 90% of its population base. What was in the 90% lost?

There is also some recent DNA findings which would seem to indicate the the “out of Africa” theory is bankrupt. man may have actually originated elsewhere, possibly South America.

[Verginius Rufus]

There used to be lions in parts of Europe. They figure in Greek mythology and Greek art, and there is the famous Lion Gate at Mycenae from the Late Bronze Age (about the 13th century BC).

Herodotus reports that lions attacked Xerxes' baggage train in 480 BC, but going after the camels only. He says there were many lions in those areas--between the River Nestos and the River Acheloos (Herodotus 7.12-126). The Nestos is in what is now NE Greece (the coastal strip south of Bulgaria) and the Acheloos is in the western part of central Greece (flowing into the sea opposite the island of Ithaca).

[Red Badger]

I kinda doubt that humans began in South America. They would have become 'bird food'..........................

When Flightless Birds Ruled the Land: The “Terror” Birds of the New World:

http://thenaturalhistorian.com/2013/03/16/terror-birds-extreme-flightless-birds-creationism/

Size comparison of various living and extinct flightless birds. The largest ones here are all extinct including the moa, elephant bird from Madagascar, and terror birds from South and North America. Image linked from:

http://getouterspace.tumblr.com/post/25857819106/giant-birds-camelidae-and-giraffidae

[Red Badger]

People tend to forget that the Cromagnons and Neanderthals shared a lot of DNA that would have been identical, so when we speak of ‘Neanderthal DNA’ we are actually speaking of DNA pieces that are uniquely traceable to them....................

[Red Badger]

These people come to a conclusion and call it a scientific fact. It is still a conclusion and theory. There are many theories and conclusions. DNA form one bone can not prove much but it causes a jump to a lot of conclusions.

Hey, it worked for the 'Global Warming' guys over in the Meteorology Department! We need more funding, too!......................Maybe we could call it 'DNA Change'...............................

[Kenny Bunk]

The science of Global Warming reached consensus in Neandertal times. In fact, it may even have been a major factor in Neandertal extinction. My Neandertal ancestors, jolly chaps though they undoubtedly were, may have sweated very heavily in their fur garments, and thus possibly were not as attractive to the newcomers in the mating and dating scene as they might have been.

I am moving briskly on and seeking federal grants to clone the Moa and the Dodo and repaint my 240D before the oceans rise.

[Red Badger]

Dude! You need a new car!.......................

[going hot]

Depends on which was the breeder, and which was the breedee.

[PIF]

Yet, somehow, other predators like the cave bear and the smilodon were ‘dealt’ with, as were mammoths - all bigger and more dangerous that the birds.

I think the idea humans becoming of ‘bird food’ is a little misplaced. Or a site hit piece. And who do you think extincted them? Nice drum sticks and large portion white meat breasts ... yum.

Back to the DNA - i think, but could be mistaken, that I saw a post on FR that questioned the African origin DNA theory. As I vaguely recall the fossilized DNA in Australian Aborigines does not lead to an African origin.

[mountainlion]

Maybe we could call it ‘DNA Change’...............................

Call it political change and try to get your tax rights? Lois Leaner will stop you.

[entropy12]

I know there were dangerous animals everywhere.
Even Siberia has large tigers today!

But Africa had more dangerous creatures than other places.
Lions,
wild dogs,
black mamba’s,
cobra’s,
Hyena’s,
Leopards,
Cheetah’s,
crocodiles,
Rhino’s,
Hippo’s
.....just a partial list.

No wonder Homo Sapiens evolved lot of brain power.
They had to in order to stay alive!

[PapaBear3625]

What I was attempting to ask, in my Holiday Inn Express-educated way was, "is it possible that the hybrids (i.e., Neander/Cromagnon) were not uniformly successful and that eventually the Neandertal portion of our DNA became sort of like, well, tiny?"

There's also the part that no Neanderthal DNA is in black Africans, so it might be that Neanderthal DNA is part of what makes Europeans and Asians a bit distinct from Africans.

[Kenny Bunk]

There's also the part that no Neanderthal DNA is in black Africans,

Now that, that's interesting. Does it then follow that Neandertal is not of African origin? Or did Neandertal also start off in Africa, but then somehow left and left no trace?

I may have to rent another Holiday Inn Express room and research this.