London - Red hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals...

Planet Save.com ^ | 1/14/05 | Planet Save.com

[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

[ValerieUSA]

That was quite an airbrushing chore.

[Dan from Michigan]

I'm about 3/4 Irish and also have a trace of Scottish blood. I'm not a redhead, but I do have red sideburns and a red beard when I grow it out.

[TASMANIANRED]

We need a redhead club.

[t_skoz]

You and me both. I just had a good encounter with a redhead this past weekend. I'll spare you the details but we'll suffice it to say an interior decorator would have approved.... If you know what I mean...

Best regards from Rochester NY :-)

[Lady Jag]

There are a lot of "badass mammals" around and some of them are human. Maybe they're all little Napoleons.

[Cinnamon Girl]

Thanks for posting interesting stuff, Wallace T. I read that Basques have the highest percentage of negative blood type of any group.

Jacob's twin brother Esau had red hair. As did King David. There are a lot of red headed Jews and they aren't from Ireland. In fact, there are many Persian Jews with red hair who have a tradition that they decended from King David.

[SunkenCiv]

That fits. :') Type B is about 15 per cent of the whole population, dunno about any connection with red hair. ;') Okay... according to a graphic chart I've got on the hard drive, which purports to be based on work by one Lars Beckman, the Irish are 52 per cent O, 35 per cent A, 10 per cent B, and 3 per cent AB. Usually the breakdown (excluding the MN blood group, which is rare, and things like Bombay syndrome) is 40 A, 40 O, 15 B, and 5 AB. :')

[dljordan]

Everyone one knows that red hair is a legacy of the extra-terrestrials who created us 1 million years ago. Sheesh!

BTW, Redheaded women are fine.

[Wallace T.]

There are also red haired Jews of Eastern European origin, Danny Kaye and Woody Allen, for example. Whether their red hair is traceable to pre-Exile Jewish heritage or to later mixture with Slavic or Turkic peoples is difficult to guess.

[ValerieUSA]

If I remember correctly, the highest percentage of type B blood occurs in eastern European Jews.

[ORECON]

What is the difference between a redhead and a terrorist?


You can negotiate with a terrorist.


A redhead is just a blonde from hell.

[Major_Risktaker]

That was quite an airbrushing chore.

Your right. The picture is an illusion, but it works.

How about those hair extensions?

[ValerieUSA]

I've heard it takes hours of patience to sit through the interweaving process of hair extensions. It might be worth it....

[ORECON]

My ex-wife is 5'7" and her dark brown hair came down to her ankles. After we divorced, she cut it to about 2" long and bleached it white.

[OB1kNOb]

Scotch-Irish here too. Brown hair but red whiskers. Go figure.

[Pyro7480]

Debbie,

You're a redhead!? No wonder I like you. ;-) I have Scottish and Irish ancestors, and though I'm half Filipino, I have red highlights. One woman who cut my hair asked if I had dyed my hair. I said, "Nope, 100% natural."

I have two close friends of mine who are redheads. One, who I had a crush on for the longest time, recently got married (she's the friend I visited in England back in September). The other is an art history graduate student up in Boston. She's a hardcore leftist, but somehow, we get along. I just wrote her an e-mail this morning, joking with her about my attraction towards redheads, that she is well aware of. I had stumbled upon a rerun of the X-Files on Sci-fi earlier this morning. I said to her that watching Gillian Anderson and the X-Files during my early teenage years must be partially to blame for my attraction. ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

Jane Burden (maiden name) was a big favorite among the PRBers, but I don't think it was because she was knockout, I think it was because her face was impassive.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/wildbunch/images/jane.gif
http://www.css.edu/USERS/phagen/hon4777pr/janeburdenphotow.jpg
http://home.clara.net/reedhome/oxford/graphics/two/jane_burden_tn.jpg
http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/muses/janemorris.jpg
http://www.libfl.ru/pre-raph/photographs/51.jpg

[Pyro7480]

I've had 4 "Redheaded" Girlfriends, and although they had an allure hard to escape

It's good to know that I'm not the only one who suffers from being drawn to "alluring redheads." ;-)

[Hegemony Cricket]

Hmmmm. I think you just launched a thousand careers in neanderthalogy...

[Marysecretary]

What next! If English folks have red hair, it probably came from the Viking raiders! (smile)