Ask Helen, she was there.
Posted on 06/23/2010 8:53:54 AM PDT by decimon
The separation of Neardenthal and Homo sapiens might have occurred at least one million years ago, more than 500.000 years earlier than previously believed after DNA-based analyses. A doctoral thesis conducted at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana) -associated with the University of Granada-, analysed the teeth of almost all species of hominids that have existed during the past 4 million years. Quantitative methods were employed and they managed to identify Neanderthal features in ancient European populations.
The main purpose of this research –whose author is Aida Gómez Robles- was to reconstruct the history of evolution of Human species using the information provided by the teeth, which are the most numerous and best preserved remains of the fossil record. To this purpose, a large sample of dental fossils from different sites in Africa, Asia and Europe was analysed. The morphological differences of each dental class was assessed and the ability of each tooth to identify the species to which its owner belonged was analysed.
The researcher concluded that it is possible to correctly determine the species to which an isolated tooth belonged with a success rate ranging from 60% to 80%. Although these values are not very high, they increase as different dental classes from the same individual are added. That means that if several teeth from the same individual are analysed, the probability of correctly identifying the species can reach 100%.
Aida Gómez Robles explains that, from all the species of hominids currently known "none of them has a probability higher than 5% to be the common ancestor of Neardenthals and Homo sapiens. Therefore, the common ancestor of this lineage is likely to have not been discovered yet".
Computer Simulation
What is innovative about this study is that computer simulation was employed to observe the effects of environmental changes on morphology of the teeth. Similar studies had been conducted on the evolution and development of different groups of mammals, but never on human evolution.
Additionally, the research conducted at CENIEH and at the University of Granada is pioneer –together with recent studies based on the shape of the skull- in using mathematical methods to make and estimation of the morphology of the teeth of common ancestors in the evolutionary tree of the human species. "However, in this study, only dental morphology was analysed. The same methodology can be used to rebuild other parts of the skeletum of that species, which would provide other models that would serve as a reference for future comparative studies of new fossil finds."
To carry out this study, Gómez Robles employed fossils from a number of archaeological-paleontological sites, such as that of the Gran Colina and the Sima de los Huesos, located in Atapuerca range (Burgos, Spain), and the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. She also studied different fossil collections by visiting international institutions as the National Museum of Georgia, the Institute of Human Paleontology and the Museum of Mankind in Paris, the European Research Centre Tautavel (France), the Senckenberg Institute Frankfurt, the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and the Museum of Natural History in New York and Cleveland.
Although the results of this research were disclosed in two articles published in one of the most prestigious journals in the field of human evolution, Journal of Human Evolution (2007 and 2008), they will be thoroughly presented within a few months.
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Contact: Aida Gómez Robles. Group of Dental Anthropology. Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (Burgos). Physical Anthopology Laboratory of the University of Granada. Phone: +34 947 04 50 63. E-mail: aida.gomez@cenieh.es
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More neandering ping.
Genesis tells me al I need to know...
Of couse we all wonder — what about the mating and interbreeding of our various ancestral human species? Have any of the traits of Neanderthals, for example, survived to this day among peoples of the world?
Hard to separate out similar teeth because of similar ancestry and similar teeth due to convergent evolution in adapting to local Northern European food sources.
So, the missing link is still missing.
Ask Helen, she was there.
A few folks I know definitely look like they descended from the Neanderthals!
Yes. They are called Democrats.
I love this time of science. Chesterton hit it spot on, and with his usual humor in “The Everlasting Man.” Speculation goes to some pretty bizarre places based on one set of cave drawings, or in this case some random samplings of teeth. He said something like when we envision cave men we don’t picture them doing careful and detailed artistic studies on cave walls . . . but that is what we really know about them . . . :P
He put it better.
The TYPE of science that is.
They have survived as soulless gingers . Beautiful but deadly .
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Thanks decimon. WOW is this place running slow.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer'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] |
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Every physical trait used to describe the Neanderthals can be found amoungst the human population today. Some of the Aboriginies of Australia have even more severe brow ridges than the Neanderthals were noted for having.
Yes, there have been recent articles here at FR regarding studies that indicate humans may have from 1 to 4% Neanderthal DNA. ASk Sunken Civ to put you on his GGG ping list to get notification about these kinds of articles (GGG means Gods, Graves, and Glyphs).
Separation between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens might have occurred 500,000 years earlier
............ 
Don’t you just love it when scientists *discover* a half a billion year mistake?
Keep lookin boys.
Neanderthal DNA is halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee. Other than for the possibility of similar design techniques, we're not related to them at all.
Half a million...
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