Posted on 01/16/2005 12:47:07 PM PST by IGBT
London - Red hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals, according to a new study by British scientists.
Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford were quoted by The Times as saying the so-called "ginger gene" which gives people red hair, fair skin and freckles could be up to 100 000 years old.
They claim that their discovery points to the gene having originated in Neanderthal man who lived in Europe for 200 000 years before Homo sapien settlers, the ancestors of modern man, arrived from Africa about 40 000 years ago.
Rosalind Harding, the research team leader, told The Times: "The gene is certainly older than 50 000 years and it could be as old as 100 000 years.
"An explanation is that it comes from Neanderthals." It is estimated that at least 10 percent of Scots have red hair and a further 40 percent carry the gene responsible, which could account for their once fearsome reputation as fighters.
Neanderthals have been characterised as migrant hunters and violent cannibals who probably ate most of their meat raw. They were taller and stockier than Homo sapiens, but with shorter limbs, bigger faces and noses, receding chins and low foreheads.
The two species overlapped for a period of time and the Oxford research appears to suggests that they must have successfully interbred for the "ginger gene" to survive. Neanderthals became extinct about 28 000 years ago, the last dying out in southern Spain and southwest France. - Sapa-DPA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1322131/posts was just recently posted. I think we have part of the answer of where those "millions of Celts" got the energy to just "pop up".
My Mother is Black Irish, Ulster, looks Italian or Spanish, with out the nose, but with the temper. My Grandmother thought she was a throw back. All of my Irish relatives are dark haired or Blonds, with blue eyes and have that Raw Boned Northern Irish look.
The old boy from Devon, sometimes known as Uncle Frank, could have said something along the lines of "To my relatives and their decendents, I bequeath my red hair and beard, and a love of boats and edged weaponry."
Red beard...
A love of boats...
and edged weaponry...
See #106
I wasn't aware of Grace Kelly's German maternal line. Thanks.
He always has.
I heard Ian Paisley preach on a Web site a week ago. His speech pattern was neither typically British or Irish, and had more than a hint of Appalachia in it. Hard "r"'s, dipthongs, and other hints of the Eastern mountains of the United States. OTOH, Dolly Parton has expressed her feelings of kinship with the Ulster folks.
Gene Simmons would be jealous of that tongue. Tassie devils are atually very cute in real life. They are misnamed, a bit like Iceland is.
Is a "dipthong" a type of footwear you dip in the water when at the beach ?
"Where are all the redheaded men out there? I know there have to be famous handsome men with red hair but I can't think of any."
How about Bozo?
"Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Leonardo DaVinci (yes, an Italian with red hair, rumored to be the most beautiful man in Florence in his youth), George Bernard Shaw and, I believe, Robert E Lee all had red hair."
What about Danny Kaye?
Oh, I forgot.
The biblical King David was famously red-headed. (I think so was Esau -- maybe this explains the Neanderthal connection.)
Yes! Eric Stoltz! He is not a bad looking man and he is redheaded!
Redhead bump.
Right, Tasmanian Devils are cute. They are so cute they'll euthanize your cat for you by biting through its skull. Tell me another one why don't you?
Is that your helmet?
I must have met the cute cousins of the species on my visit to Van Diemens Land.
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