Posted on 02/14/2006 3:31:25 PM PST by blam
European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says
James Owen
for National Geographic News
December 20, 2005
Europeans inherit their looks from Stone Age hunters, new research suggests.
Scientists studied ancient skeletons from Scandinavia to North Africa and Greece, comparing ancient and modern facial features.
Their analysis suggests modern Europeans are closely related and descended from prehistoric indigenous peoples.
Later Neolithic settlers—notably immigrants who introduced farming from the Near East some 7,500 years ago—contributed little to how Europeans look today, the researchers add.
The scientists described their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.
The study suggests that the arrival of farming did not signal a broad wave of colonization as some scientists had thought. Rather, native hunter-gatherers absorbed the farming way of life and those who brought it.
The findings are based on 24 face measurements of modern-day Europeans compared with those of their prehistoric predecessors.
The team focused on facial dimensions which are "neutral" and don't change as human populations adapt over time to different environments and lifestyles.
Because these features are passed down generation to generation, they are good markers of human ancestry, according to lead study author Loring Brace.
The University of Michigan anthropologist says the craniofacial remains of late Stone Age Europeans reflect those of earlier inhabitants who lived 35,000 to 10,000 years ago.
"They're really fairly close," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
bloody rare steak = YUMMY!!
OK
Ginger gene? How 'bout Cinnamon? <:-)
I wanna live with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy the rest of my life
With a cinnamon girl.
A dreamer of pictures I run in the night
You see us together, chasing the moonlight,
My cinnamon girl.
Ten silver saxes, a bass with a bow
The drummer relaxes and waits between shows
For his cinnamon girl.
A dreamer of pictures I run in the night
You see us together, chasing the moonlight,
My cinnamon girl.
Pa sent me money now
I'm gonna make it somehow
I need another chance
You see your baby loves to dance
Yeah...yeah...yeah.
it's implied that they were small-brained
What? Neanderthals had bigger brains than modern humans.
It's the quality of brain that is being questioned.
Early Homo erectus in Africa (from about 1.7 to 1 million years ago) averaged 900 cc in brain size
Late Homo erectus specimens from .5 million years ago average 1100-1200 cc, which falls within the range of the brain size of modern humans.
The earliest or archaic forms of Homo sapiens, the species to which we belong (top center skull), dates to 300,000-400,000 years ago and averages over 1200 cc.
The Neanderthal skull, second from right, has a brain size of 1500 cc, which is actually larger than the brains of most modern humans.
The average for ourselves, Homo sapiens sapiens, is around 1400 cc
Some of the Australian Aboriginies (today) have brow ridges that are as 'severe' and in some cases, more severe than the Neanderthals.
There is one human race and everything that we ever were is still here in us all but in bits & pieces spread out over the globe.
Image: JOHN GURCHE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER With a brain half the size of a modern one and a brow reminiscent of Homo habilis, this hominid is one of the most primitive members of our genus on record. Paleoartist John Gurche reconstructed this 1.75-million-year-old explorer from a nearly complete teenage H. erectus skull and associated mandible found in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. The background figures derive from two partial crania recovered at the site.
"It's the quality of brain that is being questioned."
No, that's not something that can be answered, so it's merely avoidance.
According to the National Geographic's Genographic project, both my husband and my father's Y-Chromosome DNA is R1b-M343, Cro-magnon.
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
The website says that as many as 90% of the males in western Ireland and western Spain come from the group, by which I infer that they were pushed west by the successive groups of invaders.
H. Erectus has more than half.
Dont take literal what some journalist wrote. They know
only know their profession: writing good sounding articles.
There where ofcourse more primitive hominoids with even smaller brains. But there are no IQ-brainsize charts that can be used.
Not being able to answer it hasnt stopped everyone from trying.
Based on tools you can make a guess, but ofcourse you cant know for sure. There are autistic people that can't properly use tools either, but are great at math.
That neither makes them smart or stupid.
You might already have this link, but if you don't, I think you will find this one handy. It's a page of links to hominid fossil photos.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/illustr.html
Thanks.
"Well, DUUUUUUUUUUUUH! And here I thought we were descended from the space aliens who built Stonehenge..."
Nephilim perhaps for some of us?....Genesis 6:1-4
"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."
Does this explain why I had to have a third novacaine injection in the middle of my root canal last week?
I am going to see my dad, a retired dentist, next week. I would be happy to ask him about strangely shaped openings in for nerve blocks -- but have no idea how to describe what is being discussed.
As for Cro-Magnons -- based on genographic stuff I have been reading, perhaps 70% of Europeans, and as many as 90% of Western Europeans, including both my dad's family and my husband's dad's family, are descended from Cro-Magnons.
Atlantic Modal Haplotype, to be precise. Also, so far, the vast majority of men who have had their y-chromosome DNA tested are in this subclade -- which may simply reflect the fact that it is "generic white guy" DNA.
Neanterthals, red hair.
My husband is mostly Scottish, but 1/16th American Indian (possibly Cree). He is red haired, has heavy brow ridges, a slightly sunken chin, short legs, long torso, broad shoulders, and a capacity for warrior-like savagery when provoked. Over the years I often wondered if he might have some Neanderthal ancestry. He was extremely sensitive to the sun.
Living during the Ice Age, being very fair skinned would have been advantageous to Neanderthals, as they would have had maximum vitamin D formation from the sun on their skin with a minimum of skin exposure in the cold weather. I saw a recent report of the discovery of the "white" gene. I think they said it appeared around 30,000 years ago. If that is correct, it would have enabled mediterranean populations to move further north, when the milder weather around 30,000 years ago got a lot colder again.
Perhaps, having a superior material culture, and at last the capacity to form Vitamin D with minimum skin exposure, the southerners were able to edge out the Neanderthals.
Both of our sons have extremely brown Asian type eyes. I probably have some Mongolean Tartar from my Prussian ancestry which they would have gotten from my recessive as I have hazel eyes and my husband clear light blue (most recessive). One son has a vaguely Indian look with dark hair, and slightly olive and oily skin. He is also a warrior. One grandson has bright red hair, gray eyes and very fair skin. His mother is Celtic in ancestry. Ain't genetics fascinating.
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