Neanderthals and modern humans mated 50,000 years earlier than we thought, scientists say.

CS Monitor ^ | 02/20/2016 | By Eva Botkin-Kowacki,

[SeekAndFind]

Ever since geneticists sequenced the first Neanderthal genome in 2010, researchers have been reporting just how related humans are to their ancient, extinct cousins. Since then, there's been more research. And more. And more.

As it turns out, non-African modern humans have Neanderthals to thank for 1 to 4 percent of their DNA. The two species were thought to have interbred around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, based on the Neanderthal DNA found in anatomically modern human specimens and people living today.

But scientists had yet to find a signature of such mating interactions in Neanderthal DNA, until now.

"Instead of leaving fragments of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans, we find fragments of modern human DNA in the Neanderthal genome," says Adam Siepel, a computational biologist who heads the quantitative biology program at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

Dr. Siepel, as part of an international team of geneticists, anthropologists, and computer scientists, found that a Neanderthal specimen from Siberia shared at least 1 percent of its DNA with modern humans. And that mating event happened some 100,000 years ago. Their results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"Humans and Neandertals must have met considerably earlier than we thought previously," Siepel tells The Christian Science Monitor in an interview.

[HypatiaTaught]

About twenty years ago while taking an anthropology class, I remember clearly suggesting to my professor of possible sharing of DNA. It was so obvious to me, in fact I truly believe this combination of traits gave rise to our success in the world.

[HypatiaTaught]

Absolutely wrong! And those stupid Geico commercials...

[mcshot]

They must have been good pipers.

[armydawg505]

Can we find that encounter on video somewhere???

[Patriot777]

probably.

[tbw2]

By dating it that far back, you are now back to the multi-regional evolution hypothesis.

[Mercat]

Would that explain the pentatonic scale? It developed in Europe first where there is a higher percentage of Neanderthal DNA.

[grey_whiskers]

Here's the authoress of this piece.

I imagine she gets *many* offers or solicitations to mate:

[PIF]

If you look, there is an article titled “Neanderthals Sang Like Sopranos,” I believe.

And now for the woo-woo factor ...

While the standard theory of dating Egyptian Old Kingdom artifacts and specifically the complex at Giza date to only 2800 BC or so there is some evidence (mostly suppressed, as is much about the Old Kingdom) that the structures are far older - in the range of over 20,000 BC at the earliest (climate modeling and Nile river position). This puts both the complex at Giza and the Neanderthal late disappearance date close. I only mention this because most people do no know that the Pyramids at the complex are resonate structures such that when inside, vocal tones become ever-varying songs ...

“The Universe is not only queerer that we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” - J.B.S. Haldane

[jsanders2001]

And now they are landing on our shores by the millions with Obama’s assistance.

[PIF]

If you like your women with the top of their heads missing ... :)

[PIF]

That comment is a quote from the article

[PIF]

Whose to say ... posssible but then there are other scales - of which I only know exist, but nothing more.

[jsanders2001]

> Because of the way the larynx is positioned in the Neanderthal throat, they had high voices and ‘sang soprano’ and may have ‘sung,’ not in words, which would have been difficult, but in tones ... places with naturally resonating harmonics would have been important to them, if the preceding is true, as such properties amplify and modulate tones.

[jsanders2001]

> Because of the way the larynx is positioned in the Neanderthal throat, they had high voices and ‘sang soprano’ and may have ‘sung,’ not in words, which would have been difficult, but in tones ... places with naturally resonating harmonics would have been important to them, if the preceding is true, as such properties amplify and modulate tones.

[PIF]

Yes I wrote that ... were you going to add something?

[grey_whiskers]

She was just writing “off the top of her head” I guess...

[grey_whiskers]

She was just writing "off the top of her head" I guess...

Or more likely, the photographer was so enamored of her décolletage, he forgot to include all the rest of her in the picture.

"Hey, *I'M* up here" and all that...

[Mercat]

Maybe they were all taken up to the mother ship? I only say that because that’s the theory Mr. Mercat and I have about squirrels and their nests.

[samtheman]