Posted on 07/18/2011 7:16:57 AM PDT by decimon
Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
"This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," says Dr. Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East.
Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. Meanwhile, early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question on everyone's mind has always been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association.
"In addition, because our methods were totally independent of Neanderthal material, we can also conclude that previous results were not influenced by contaminating artifacts," adds Dr. Labuda.
Dr. Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia.
"There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals. This is a very nice result, and further analysis may help determine more details," says Dr. Nick Patterson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, a major researcher in human ancestry who was not involved in this study.
"Dr. Labuda and his colleagues were the first to identify a genetic variation in non-Africans that was likely to have come from an archaic population. This was done entirely without the Neanderthal genome sequence, but in light of the Neanderthal sequence, it is now clear that they were absolutely right!" adds Dr. David Reich, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, one of the principal researchers in the Neanderthal genome project.
So, speculates Dr. Labuda, did these exchanges contribute to our success across the world? "Variability is very important for long-term survival of a species," says Dr. Labuda. "Every addition to the genome can be enriching." An interesting match, indeed.
###
About the study:
"An X-linked haplotype of the Neandertal origin is present among all non-African populations" was published in the July 2011 issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution. The authors are Vania Yotova, Jean-Francois Lefebvre, Claudia Moreau, Elias Gbeha, Kristine Hovhannesyan, Stephane Bourgeois, Sandra Be´darida, Luisa Azevedo, Antonio Amorim, Tamara Sarkisian, Patrice Hodonou Avogbe, Nicodeme Chabi, Mamoudou Hama Dicko, Emile Sabiba Kou' Santa Amouzou, Ambaliou Sanni, June Roberts-Thomson, Barry Boettcher, Rodney J. Scott, and Damian Labuda.
The study was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
I've worked with people of all races who happen to be smarter than me, as well as people of all races who were complete idiots. I think Thomas Sowell is a much smarter man than anybody in this discussion.
That said, it's hard to argue against the existence of STATISTICAL differences that don't seem to go away no matter how much money you throw at the issue.
You don’t believe that the Bible is God’s Word, so you do not believe Paul was speaking for God.
I already got that, in case you missed it.
You refuse to recognize “blood” in the context here in which it is used, to denote ancestry or kin, a use very common throughout the ages in the English language as well as many others.
I already got that, too.
You are just repeating yourself, and I am repeating myself now, so I think our discussion is over.
I do believe in God’s word, just that Paul wasn’t speaking for God.
I gave you the context from the Concordance, based on the word that Paul used. You on the other hand are blowing smoke and putting a meaning to the word that wasn’t intended.
Have a nice day.
And there are a few! ;)
Plausibly.
Thx.
Maybe we should go back and ponder the significance of Genesis 6 1:8
ABSOLUTELY INDEED.
Have tried to foster such for more than 10 years hereon.
Guy Malone treats the topic best:
HTTP://WWW.ALIENRESISTANCE.ORG
So the Africans arrived and took the white women?
they were not raised in the same household...
the first was raised in a household by new parents who had a single child...
the next child was born to a set of doting parents and a jealous older sibling...
the third had parents who were non-chalant about childhood traumas of a child that not only was tormented for now being the favorite, but received the hostility of not one but two older siblings...
it is pretty much all nurturing...
teeman
bless you for your parenting.
Any research or discussions about bio-determinism are too scary to be handled for most universities. What’s needed is objectivity, facing who and what we are physically and spiritually, all differences and similarities. None of our educational, criminal, political problems can be solved until we are willing to face the whole truth about who we are and our origins.
That’s not what the article says, it says NON African humans met up with neanderthals and bred with them whereas African humans didn’t leave Africa soon enough to breed with them. There fore they are saying there is a difference between European Humans and African humans, as if they evolved at different times and in different areas.
The genetic difference between any two members of our species is very very small.
This reflects our rather recent common ancestry (within the last 100,000 years) and most likely a severe genetic bottleneck - where only individuals with a few variations contributed to the entirety of all subsequent generations.
Two ravens from across town most likely have far more genetic difference between them than any two human beings from across the entire planet.
Really? Do you believe this, then?
2nd Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
So, is what Paul is teaching here scriptural or not? Inspired or not?
> I gave you the context from the Concordance
Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines "blood" thus.
Well, imagine that! Both Noah Webster and I see that verse in exactly the same way.
So, by your reckoning, Webster and I are both deficient in understanding plain English.
African humans are likely humans whose ancestors NEVER had left Africa (other than in modern times).
As is the genetic difference between a St Bernard, a border collie, a pit bull, and a chihuahua. Yet those small differences do create some significant differences in appearance and behavior between the various breeds of dog.
I expect politically incorrect science to be denounced as racist on liberal sites, but it’s surprising to see it happen here. Either this research is correct or it isn’t. Whether some people use it to disparage one group or the other is secondary.
Granted, the racial argument has some entertaining aspects. Blacks are supposed to be inferior because they’re *not* related to Neanderthals?
Merely because genetics and genetic studies have been used in the past to justify racism does not mean we should reject what the study if genetics shows us. Someone else said we should not be afraid of the truth. I submit that is 100% correct, because God is Truth.
However, if you are still concerned about this being used to justify racism, quite frankly the way I read it and indeed a very possible interpretation is the following: we interbred with Neanderthals, and some whites think THEY are superior to black people, the only truly “pure” human beings (genetically speaking)?
< chuckle > sometimes I think God does have a sense of humor.
In all likelihood "modern" humans killed off the Neanderthals, keeping a few of the women for themselves, resulting in a slight infusion of Neandertal blood.
It is amazing how carefully scientists dance around this prospect, trying to pretend the correlation of time of exit of modern humans from Africa and extinction of the Neandertals is probably just a coincidence. The myth of the primeval Golden Age free from violence springs eternally new.
Since we know Neandertals were stronger than modern humans and this recent evidence implies they may also have been more intelligent, then the question arises as to how modern humans won the contest. Fighting a guy who is both smarter and stronger than you is seldom a good idea.
With dogs those traits were selected for by humans, the differences held as each strain was held to a standard and the bloodlines kept separate.
Humans had different environments selecting those traits, and different sexual selection criteria.
The number one difference between human populations is cultural, not genetic.
There is vanishingly small genetic differences and most of those have to do with local climate adaptation.
Being better at dumping heat may make for (all other things being equal) a better athlete - but there is in biology - as with economics - no such thing as a free lunch. Every trait has a optimal range, a cost benefit trade-off, etc, etc.
Differences do not mean that one is better and one is worse - they mean that one is better is some situations and others are better in other situations.
You know, this kind of crap doesn’t help my case when trying to convince family and friends that Free Republic is not an offensive and racist site...
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