Italy's first Neanderthal dates back 250,000 years

The Local ^ | November 4, 2015 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

Neanderthal man arrived on the Italian peninsular some 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a study set to be published this month.

The discovery was made after researchers analyzed radioactive deposits that were found in sediments present inside two Neanderthal skulls unearthed in a gravel pit Saccopastore, Lazio, in the 1930s.

The site of the dig is now occupied by an eastern section of Rome's ring road.

"The results of our studies show that the Saccopastore remains are 100,000 years older than previously thought -- and push back the arrival of Neanderthal man in Italy to 250,000 years ago," said Fabrizio Marra, a researcher who carried out the study with the Italian Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV).

Speaking of the importance of the findings, Marra said they had changed the conceptions about the distribution of the proto-humans across Europe, "putting the arrival of Neanderthal man in Italy at roughly the same time as his arrival in central Europe."

The discovery also solves a mystery that had been plaguing paleontologists for years: the fact that the eleven stone artefacts found at Saccopastore seemed older than the original dating suggested.

The research was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of geologists from INGV alongside paleontologists and anthropologists from Rome's Sapienza University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US...

Until now, the oldest Neanderthal specimen in Italy was thought to be the so-called Altamura man, a limestone encrusted Neanderthal skeleton which was found in a cave in Puglia in 1993.

In spite of the new research not much is known about humanity's early ancestor, who was just 0.12 percent genetically different to modern man and became extinct 40,000 years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

A new study has found that Neanderthal man was present in Italy 100,000 years earlier than previously thought. Photo: Micheal Himbeaut/Flickr

[SunkenCiv]

• Neanderthals are almost TWICE as old as first thought: DNA suggests emerged 700,000 years ago

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

"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]

KEYWORDS: neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals

[Verginius Rufus]

Lazio, Neanderthals.

No wonder Hillary was able to beat Rick Lazio. Another victory for Homo sapiens over the Neanderthals. Although Hillary probably should be classified in another species, Homo mendax.

[BBB333]

Italy’s most loathsome Neanderthal:

Benito Mussolini:
Born: July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italy
Died (exterminated!!!!): April 28, 1945, Giulino, Italy

[armydawg505]

America’s first Neanderthal dates back to 2008.

[mountainlion]

0.12 does not sound possible. There is so much guess works and speculation that I have a hard time considering their “facts”.

[buckalfa]

"America’s first Neanderthal dates back to 2008."

Hey ! That is an insult to the rest of us knuckle draggers !

[Huskrrrr]

[showme_the_Glory]

Itza me, aMario

[BroJoeK]

Results vary depending on methodology used, but commonly cited numbers say that modern humans are 99.9% identical in DNA.
Neanderthals were 99.7% identical and apparently interbred with humans, making Neanderthals the same species as humans.

By contrast chimpanzee DNA is around 96% identical to humans, cannot interbrede and so are classified as a separate genus of great ape.

[Red Badger]

I didn’t know Helen Thomas was Italian!...................

[Larry Lucido]

I think they found the original original Famous Ray’s there.

I wonder how the calzones were?

[null and void]

By contrast chimpanzee DNA is around 96% identical to humans, cannot interbrede and so are classified as a separate genus of great ape.

That doesn't stop some from trying...

[wildbill]

“Neanderthals emerged 700,000 years ago.”

Which brings to mind the old question: What was there before the universe emerged?

[cyborg]

I found him first. I called him Daddy Joe and he had more hair on his back than the ones in Clan of the Cave Bear.

[SunkenCiv]

Well, that’s kind of a personal question- oh, you said calzones...

[SunkenCiv]

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

[SunkenCiv]

Chimps (also gibbons, gorillas, and orangutans) have 24 chromosome pairs, another impediment to successful reproduction with a human co-parent. :')

• Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley (pp 23-24)

  "For thirty years, nobody disputed this 'fact'. One group of scientists abandoned their experiments on human liver cells because they could only find twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in each cell. Another researcher invented a method of separating the chromosomes, but still he thought he saw twenty-four pairs. It was not until 1955, when an Indonesian named Joe-Hin Tjio travelled from Spain to Sweden to work with Albert Levan, that the truth dawned. Tjio and Levan, using better techniques, plainly saw twenty-three pairs. They even went back and counted twenty-three pairs in photographs in books where the caption stated that there were twenty-four pairs. There are none so blind as do not wish to see."

The correct number of chromosomes could have been discerned, one would think, during the almost 35 years involved in the events above. The most daunting realization is that the double heliacal form of DNA was discerned in 1953, two years before this chromosome count was corrected.

[Larry Lucido]

:-)

[mountainlion]

Results vary depending on methodology used,

It would be nice if they gave the methodology and data instead of just the opinion or theories. There are other people out there with opposite opinions and just as many facts. When I see an article I can not tell if it is a hit piece or a theory with same methodology as global warming.