Signs of Neanderthals Mating With Humans

New York Times ^ | 5/6/10 | NICHOLAS WADE

[antidemoncrat]

Neanderthals mated with some modern humans after all and left their imprint in the human genome, a team of biologists has reported in the first detailed analysis of the Neanderthal genetic sequence.

[x]

By “human” do you mean “homo sapiens”?

[allmendream]

Evolution is an observed mechanism, and under the theory of common descent of species we and Neanderthals could share a common ancestor without the human species having any descent at all from Neanderthals.

Dental analysis for a long time has indicated that there was Neanderthal descent among European populations.

DNA analysis, now that it has found this evidence, can give a quantifiable figure, like 4%. So out of every 100 great to the n-th power grandparents that a typical European person has, it is likely that 4 of them were Neanderthals.

[farmguy]

That’s the one I was looking for!

[Islander7]

He kinda looks French.

[American Constitutionalist]

Kieth Olberman is proof of this.

[Hodar]

This preposes that there were a spontaneous creation of some population of Homo Sapiens.

Unless I’m mistaken (and I often am), isn’t Neanderthal actually older than Homo Sapiens? Thus, the logical assumption I’m going from is that a mutation of a Neanderthal mating resulted in Homo Sapiens, and this mutation was adept at surviving until sexual maturity, where it’s progeny created more Homo Sapiens.

And as these Homo Sapiens reproduced, at some stage the obvious differences between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal, this would lead to a separation of the species. Homo Sapiens being more frail, but smarter would eventually replace the more rugged but less intelligent Neanderthal.

[Spok]

I thought this was another Sandra Bullock/Jesse James story.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Signs?

They really posted signs?

Must have been the humans. Neandros didn’t read or write very well...

Are you sure? Really sure? Signs?

[allmendream]

You seem caught up in the delusion that there must somehow be an unbroken line, with the line that gave rise to Neanderthal dying out when Neanderthals came about in Europe and never perhaps ALSO spawning the line that gave rise to modern Homo Sapiens out of Africa.

One species doesn't die out simply because a new species arises from an isolated European population. That species can also give rise to other species that spread out over the Earth, and could perhaps produce fertile crossbreeds with that other older species.

Follow?

[Grut]

They had cigars back then?

[Dog]

LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Obviously, whomever it is, they need to keep the blinds down. Thanks blam and Palter. :') The Neandertal Enigma by James Shreeve in local libraries Frayer'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] Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[allmendream]

[TJC]

Is that you Barry? Barry Hussein?

[Hot Tabasco]

Neanderthals mated with some modern humans after all

Evidence that beer is older than we thought........

[dangerdoc]

bump

[Will88]

But the new analysis, which is based solely on genetics and elaborate statistical calculations, is more difficult to match with the archaeological record. The Leipzig scientists assert that the interbreeding they detect did not occur in Europe but in the Middle East and at a much earlier period, some 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, before the modern human populations of Europe and East Asia had split.

Neanderthal DNA found in the populations that left Africa and later split off to Europe and Asia, but not found in populations that remained in Africa.

[GoldenPup]

Neanderthals mated with some modern humans after all and left their imprint in the human genome...

Of course they did. Their offspring are running around Washington right now...every day.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The evolutionary timeline goes roughly like this: homo habilis (handy man), homo erectus (upright man), and then a branching out. For this topic, the branches include homo neanderthalis (Neanderthal man) and homo sapiens (wise-guy wise man). There are plenty of other homos (heh), but that's basically the route.

The research indicated 1% to 4%. The 4% you, allmendream, mentioned is the high end. They compared the genomes of only five modern humans. One person to represent each 'race'. Sample size of 1, miniscule, to represent an entire population. Also to be considered is that some of the Neanderthal genome was reconstructed using software and current understanding of how DNA is chemically degraded; maybe there was some bias towards reconstruction in a modern human direction? The researchers' hypothesis is that admixture with a small number of Neanderthals occurred as modern humans - a relatively small group of them - were exiting Africa into Eurasia. That's why, to them, Neanderthal genes are so widespread, based on the five genomes they compared against. And why the Middle East is mentioned; the researchers argue that most of modern humanity, not just Middle Easterners, have a little Neanderthal ancestry.

Dental analysis does not mean much in terms of ancestry. Neanderthals also sometimes had red hair, which might lead some to conclude continuity between Neanderthal redheads and modern redhead descendants. But the Neanderthals' red hair was caused by a different mutation than moderns'; it's just that both mutations shut off eumelanin production in hair follicles. It definitely did not indicate. At most it suggested. Maybe there is something about the foods in that region that select for a particular tooth shape, just as maybe there is something in that environment that causes selection for red hair - or conversely the rest of the world causes red hair to not be favored?

And even if this research is correct in declaring that most humans have a small degree of Neanderthal ancestry, there is absolutely no way Australian Aborigines are homo erectus. The date of divergence, according to evolutionary theory, was far too long ago, the distance is much greater than that between homo sapiens and Neanderthals. They could not breed offspring. And yet Australian Aborigines can produce fertile offspring with white people - and presumably with members of other 'races' - to the same extent as other interracial couples. Not to mention, at least one Australian Aborigine has had his genome sequenced, and he came out homo sapiens. To make a long story short: DNA infinitely trumps morphology in providing evidence of descent.

http://www.sciencemag.org/special/neandertal/feature/index.html