Posted on 10/26/2009 3:33:00 PM PDT by Dysart
Modern man and Neanderthals had sex across the species barrier, according to leading geneticist Professor Svante Paabo.
Professor Paabo, who is director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institution for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, made the claim at a conference in the Cold Springs Laboratory in New York.
But Prof Paabo said he was unclear if the couplings had led to children, of if they were capable of producing offspring.
"What I'm really interested in is, did we have children back then and did those children contribute to our variation today?" he said in an article in The Sunday Times.
"I'm sure that they had sex, but did it give offspring that contributed to us? We will be able to answer quite vigorously with the new [Neanderthal genome] sequence."
The phenomenon is already seen in modern animals such as horses and zebras, and lions and tigers, but resulting offspring have always been infertile.
In recent years, fossils with both Neanderthal and modern human features have been found suggesting the two species interbred but previous scans of Neanderthal genes reveal Neanderthal DNA to have a very different make-up to modern man's.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Man, no offense, but it looks to me like Professor Paabo has really let himself go. Very poor posture, looks like a classic computer terminal squint. Poor guy needs to get out more.
George the animal steele! Yeah, the first one looks like he’d eat a turnbuckle.
****”I’m sure that they had sex, but did it give offspring that contributed to us? We will be able to answer quite vigorously with the new [Neanderthal genome] sequence.” ***
Oh Sure!
Just another *educated* guess. Seems to me that the only way one could be *sure* is if there were progeny!!
Good grief!!
I was going to post the following, until I read the posts; you guys have done well putting the appropriate spin on the subject, LOL.
Oh, this is way more than target rich, Prof Paabo could be just the one to answer Douglas Adam’s questions about “Life, the Universe and Everything”… On the other left-hand, why is this even a topic of consideration…in…unless…no wait for it…some are trying to make abnormal or genetic anomalies (abomolies as I like to call them) socially accepted as another species of life…although, the left prefers Darwinism, so I guess the fact that that he does not know, unable to confirm or has no proof; he is another useful idiot in a long line of butt boys trying to gain favor. Leads me to wonder, the purpose of all this…. “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder!”
George “The Animal” Steel FTW!
Well, that certainly explains Helen Thomas. . .
Never could convince me any different. Barbara Bach or Raquel Welch in a fur bikini is what I was dreaming about, while my teachers were pushing those stupid books with ape people pictures at us.
Was it Bertha Butt and the Butt sisters? gotta find a woman gotta find a woman.
This is conclusive proof that primitive man had beer.
 |
| From The Vitamin Press |
Which was first - the chicken or the egg though? Modern man did not exist before neanderthal. Neanderthals didn’t exist before apes, since we all came from them, right? When did the chicken have sex with the egg? This Evolution stuff is so confusing.
It would be proof but that view is complicated by the gene dilution argument.
Ok, I got it; it’s another Geico Commercial appealing to the lower beasts of nature. Would explain a lot, since Geico I believe is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.