Posted on 01/16/2005 12:47:07 PM PST by IGBT
London - Red hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals, according to a new study by British scientists.
Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford were quoted by The Times as saying the so-called "ginger gene" which gives people red hair, fair skin and freckles could be up to 100 000 years old.
They claim that their discovery points to the gene having originated in Neanderthal man who lived in Europe for 200 000 years before Homo sapien settlers, the ancestors of modern man, arrived from Africa about 40 000 years ago.
Rosalind Harding, the research team leader, told The Times: "The gene is certainly older than 50 000 years and it could be as old as 100 000 years.
"An explanation is that it comes from Neanderthals." It is estimated that at least 10 percent of Scots have red hair and a further 40 percent carry the gene responsible, which could account for their once fearsome reputation as fighters.
Neanderthals have been characterised as migrant hunters and violent cannibals who probably ate most of their meat raw. They were taller and stockier than Homo sapiens, but with shorter limbs, bigger faces and noses, receding chins and low foreheads.
The two species overlapped for a period of time and the Oxford research appears to suggests that they must have successfully interbred for the "ginger gene" to survive. Neanderthals became extinct about 28 000 years ago, the last dying out in southern Spain and southwest France. - Sapa-DPA
I knew I was part Scots, Nordic, etc. but now I guess I'm part Neanderthal, too ;-).
You lacked the fine hand required to handle a redhead.
Redheads are intense.
I remember being teased about Laugh-In's Farkle Family when I was a kid.
You are a fortunate man. You just don't know it yet.
I can't tell you how many times a day I give thanks to the Lord for allowing me to be hitched to her. And can she cook, she can take nothing and turn it into the best stuff ever.
Oooops! Sorry, you are correct.
It is an art.
Redheads are intense.
That word has been used to describe me :-D
There’s no way we’re from Africa!
Neanderthals didn’t die off. We are still here!
There is no way people are going to tell me that Equatorial people who live in the heat. And can’t take the cold. Are going to come up were they freeze there butts off.
Us Redheaded Neanderthal Vikings got all over! There were even American Indians tribes with Red hair.
Best picture yet!
Dan Quayle.
FWIW, my ex is O+
Eric the Red?
Alexander was fair haired so was his father Philip of Macedonia. Macedonians are also thought to be northern emegres racially distinct from Mediteranean Greeks.
regardless of blood type... red hair = perfection!
I'm planning to build one or more, full scale, in the future.
Most likely the problems encountered in the breeding were the 700 pound women with four breasts.
The presence of Mediterranean looking Irishmen and the genetic similarity of many Irish to the Basques represent settlement patterns that well predate the defeated Armada and even the birth of Christ. Ireland had inhabitants prior to the arrival of the Celts, who may have been akin to the Basques. Additionally, trade routes from the eastern Mediterranean extended into the British Isles, and Ireland was never out of touch with sailors, traders, and merchants from that area. These influences are more plausible explanations for the "Black Irish" than are Armada survivors.
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