Posted on 05/15/2015 1:52:19 PM PDT by Red Badger
A Neanderthal skeleton, left, compared with a modern human skeleton. Credit: American Museum of Natural History
DNA testing of a human mandible fossil found in Romania has revealed a genome with 4.8 to 11.3 percent Neanderthal DNA—its original owner died approximately 40,000 years ago, Palaeogenomicist Qiaomei Fu reported to audience members at a Biology of Genomes meeting in New York last week. She noted also that she and her research team found long Neanderthal sequences. The high percentage suggests, she added, that the human had a Neanderthal in its family tree going back just four to six generations. The finding by the team provides strong evidence that humans and Neanderthals continued breeding in Europe, long after their initial co-mingling in the Middle East (after humans began migrating out of Africa.)
Last year, Fu and her team published a paper describing DNA analysis of a human bone fragment found in an unknown place in Siberia. Dated at 45,000 years old, the team found evidence of Neanderthal DNA, but more importantly, because it was remarkably well preserved, the relic served to strengthen a slower mutation rate than many in the field were embracing. In this new effort, Fu and her team also found that the jawbone (which still had some teeth in it) had visible Neanderthal traits, such as enlarged wisdom teeth. The jawbone was found in a cave accessible only by diving through a watery corridor back in 2002, and has been an object of study ever since. The high percentage of Neanderthal DNA is in sharp contrast to modern out-of-Africa humans, which typically have approximately one to four percent Neanderthal genes.
This latest finding, along with the bone found in Siberia and others in Europe has eroded the belief that human interbreeding with Neanderthals occurred only in the Middle East. It now seems possible that humans and Neanderthals were living in the same geographic areas over the course of five thousand years, which would of course explain why their DNA appears in every person not directly descended from people in Africa, on the planet. What is still a mystery, though, is what happened to the Neanderthal? Why did they disappear even as humans continued on? Eerily, this new evidence suggests that the two were interbreeding very nearly right up to the time when the Neanderthals ceased to exist.
More information: Fu, Q., An early modern human with a recent Neandertal ancestor, talk: meetings.cshl.edu/abstracts/genome2015_absstat.html
Neanderthals had bigger brains than did modern humans (us), bigger brains equal higher IQ.
The earlier hominid forms had already moved out of Africa over a million years ago. Precursor hominids like Heidelberg man had evolved in Europe 500,000 years ago, and Neanderthal probably evolved from that line also in Europe and Eurasia. The have not found any Neanderthal traces in Africa.
Somebody needs to post a picture of Racquel Welch in her fur bikini right about here
Stop with the racist comments. I, as a Neanderthal, am offended by your assumption that we are liberal.
In fact, we are the most conservative people on earth.
from the FRchives:The Scars of Evolution:"The most remarkable aspect of Todaro's discovery emerged when he examined Homo Sapiens for the 'baboon marker'. It was not there... Todaro drew one firm conclusion. 'The ancestors of man did not develop in a geographical area where they would have been in contact with the baboon. I would argue that the data we are presenting imply a non-African origin of man millions of years ago.'"
What Our Bodies Tell Us
About Human Origins
by Elaine Morgan
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.