Science| DOI: 10.1126/science.aad1740
Ann is a contributing correspondent for Science
Posted on 09/13/2015 1:17:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In a remarkable technical feat, researchers have sequenced DNA from fossils in Spain that are about 300,000 to 400,000 years old and have found an ancestor -- or close relative -- of Neandertals. The nuclear DNA, which is the oldest ever sequenced from a member of the human family, may push back the date for the origins of the distinct ancestors of Neandertals and modern humans, according to a presentation here yesterday at the fifth annual meeting of the European Society for the study of human evolution.
Ever since researchers first discovered thousands of bones and teeth from 28 individuals in the mid-1990s from Sima de los Huesos ("pit of bones"), a cave in the Atapuerca Mountains of Spain, they had noted that the fossils looked a lot like primitive Neandertals. The Sima people, who lived before Neandertals, were thought to have emerged in Europe. Yet their teeth, jaws, and large nasal cavities were among the traits that closely resembled those of Neandertals, according to a team led by paleontologist Juan-Luis Arsuaga of the Complutense University of Madrid. As a result, his team classified the fossils as members of Homo heidelbergensis, a species that lived about 600,000 to 250,000 years ago in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Many researchers have thought H. heidelbergensis gave rise to Neandertals and perhaps also to our species, H. sapiens, in the past 400,000 years or so.
But in 2013, the Sima fossils' identity suddenly became complicated when a study of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one of the bones revealed that it did not resemble that of a Neandertal. Instead, it more closely matched the mtDNA of a Denisovan, an elusive type of extinct human discovered when its DNA was sequenced from a finger bone from Denisova Cave in Siberia.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sciencemag.org ...
Ann is a contributing correspondent for Science
The Neandertal Enigma"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]
by James Shreeve
in local libraries
I wonder if there were liberals back then :)
She looks good for a 400,000 year old semi-human!
Since is amazing! ;)
But don't Orientals have Neanderthal DNA?
Sure. Someone had to tell people to go spear the sabertooth cats so they didn’t have to do it themselves.
Dead giveaway.
Redheads. I married one. Trust me ;)
One of my sister in laws was not far off that pic either. longer face.
If wonder if they used SNAP to get their share of the meat :)
No, Like any liberal I suspect they simply walked into the dead man’s cave and took his sXit.
The Neandertal genome survives mostly strongly in modern Europeans (and Americans of Euro descent), and is also found in Asians. This article is mostly about the underlying Denisovan roots of Neandertal.
Here’s a map and some FR links:
Neanderthal sex boosted immunity in modern humans [2011]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2769260/posts
When humans broke off sex with neanderthals[2012]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2940786/posts
Find Your Inner (Genetic) Neanderthal[2013]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3029593/posts
I’ve heard that neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of modern homo sapiens.
But interbreeding suggests a binary male female heterosexual orientation. Which then makes one wonder how Neanderthal society dealt with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Neanderthals.
The find in South Africa is the forefather of today's gorilla.
Probably the way nature always has. Like any other sick animal. Pushed to the outside of the herd as prey for other predators.
Why couldn’t they have become extinct? :)
would have made sense evolution wise. They’re kind of useless.
But cunning at times.
Maybe Devo was right all along.
Same reason cancer exists and was not bred out. And cancer kills even more of the hosts.
Or it’s behavorial.
Or both. I go with both.
nope
Another point to ponder.
We have records of behavior going back MAYBE 10K years. If there are 1.% percent of gays today in the total pop, is there evidence to suggest or disprove that they did not comprise 20-30-40% 400,000 yeas ago?
Because if there is, then evo has indeed selected them for extinction just as we suspect.
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