Posted on 07/24/2006 11:41:28 AM PDT by doc30
BERLIN — U.S. and German scientists have launched a two-year project to decipher the genetic code of the Neanderthal, a feat they hope will help deepen understanding of how modern humans' brains evolved.
Neanderthals were a species that lived in Europe and western Asia from more than 200,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago. Scientists from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology are teaming up a company in Connecticut to map the genome, or humans' DNA code.
“The Neanderthal is the closest relative to the modern human, and we believe that by sequencing the Neanderthal we can learn a lot,” said Michael Egholm, a vice-president at 454 Life Sciences Corp. of Branford, Conn., which will use its high-speed sequencing technology in the project.
There are no firm answers yet about how humans picked up key traits such as walking upright and developing complex language. Neanderthals are believed to have been relatively sophisticated, but lacking in humans' higher reasoning functions.
The Neanderthal project follows scientists' achievement last year in deciphering the DNA of the chimpanzee, our closest living relative. That genome map produced a long list of DNA differences between humans and chimps and some hints about which differences might be crucial.
The chimp genome “led to literally too many questions, there were 35 million differences between us and chimpanzees – that's too much to figure out,” 454 chairman Jonathan Rothberg said in a telephone interview.
“By having Neanderthal, we'll really be able to home in on the small percentage of differences that gave us higher cognitive abilities,” he said. “Neanderthal is going to open the box. It's not going to answer the question, but it's going to tell where to look to understand all of those higher cognitive functions.”
Over two years, the scientists aim to reconstruct a draft of the three-billion building blocks of the Neanderthal genome – working with fossil samples from several individuals.
They face the complication of working with 40,000-year-old samples, and of filtering out microbial DNA that contaminated them after death.
Only about 5 per cent of the DNA in the samples is actually Neanderthal DNA, Mr. Egholm said, but he and Mr. Rothberg said pilot experiments had convinced them that the decoding was feasible.
At the Max Planck Institute, the project also involves Svante Paabo, who nine years ago participated in a pioneering, though smaller-scale, DNA test on a Neanderthal sample.
That study suggested that Neanderthals and humans split from a common ancestor a half-million years ago and backed the theory that Neanderthals were an evolutionary dead end.
The new project will help in understanding how characteristics unique to humans evolved and “will also identify those genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world,” Mr. Paabo said in a statement Thursday.
Is your objection that science has no answers which are not subject to subsequent modification? Or do you just dislike science in general?
The way you phrased your post, it would be easy to conclude that you just dislike science.
Your comment about "absolute" answers suggests a lack of familiarity with the methods of science as well.
Yes. Where do you think that money was spent? On the moon? It was spent right here in the US, on the high tech industry. There is very little in medical remote sensing that does not come from NASA. Computers, weather prediction, and a host of other fields all owe some debt to the space industry. And you would have us throw that away for what?
Getting back to the original theme - so what if there was life on Mars?
If there is not now, there will be.
Tell you what, you stay here, and I'll go to Mars. How's that sound?
Cold adaptation by itself does not necessarily imply more intelligence. Neanderthal had a brain about 100 cc larger than modern humans, but that is not a huge difference. There is no evidence that 100 cc equates to smarter. The range of variation in modern humans is huge, and there is no evidence of which I am aware that 100 cc difference means anything in terms of intelligence.
Please google Neanderthals and burials you might learn something. While your ancestors left their dead relatives where ever they fell, Neanderthal tied his dead loved ones up in in a crouched position (the same position in which babies enter the world). Death for a Neanderthal was the return to the womb. This is very complicated thinking which some people even now days are incapable of grasping.I for one am very interested in knowing what the extra gray matter was capable of doing. I do not buy the B.S. that the extra gray matter of the Neanderthal was superfluous.
The complex behavior of Neanderthal appears to be confirmed by the evidence. What is not understood is why Neanderthal became extinct while modern humans thrived. It does appear that the extra 100 cc of gray matter was not a factor in this part of selection pressure. What was? Don't know.
If it gets your goat to learn that man is not the top of the pyramid as far as brains ,maybe some humility is just what you need.
The extra 100 cc of gray matter appears not to have made the critical difference: Neanderthal is extinct and H. sapiens are here today. Perhaps some other trait was more important?
When you figure absolute brain size you have to take into consideration body size. The primate line is clearly ahead of the pack in relative brain size (although whales and elephants are larger in absolute terms, they have much larger bodies to maintain). Within the primate line, how much larger would Neanderthal have had to be to have a 100 cc brain size increase? Perhaps 6 percent?
One method of adapting to cold climate is to develop a short, squat body form--an endomorph. That preserves heat because of the better volume to surface ratio. Perhaps Neanderthal did that; the osteology does not contradict this possibility. A change in only 6 percent of body mass could have lead to a similar change in brain size.
In either case, we still do not really know why Neanderthal went kaput and we survived. There is a lot more that science can tell us if we are patient. Maybe the DNA will provide some additional clues.
I know lots of intelligent people who do not see any point in having children.
That is a factor to consider. There is some key to the puzzle out there, and scientists are sure to come across it eventually.
I'm guessing you are harbouring a lot of resentment because you were picked om by nerds in High School.
You can't, I already volunteered, one way if necessary.
I maintain Neanderthal disappeared because he tasted too good. You don't have any evidence to the contrary, so I must be right :-)
You can't, I already volunteered, one way if necessary.
Its bad enought to put up with you here, but on Mars! Gimmi a break!
What they call neanderthal is probably a type of large ape or ape like creature. Probably alot like the bigfoots that many people have had sightings of. No true transitional fossils showing the slow transition of life forms equals no evolution no matter how hard some scientists try and make the fossils seem like transitionals.
You are totally out of your league on this one.
Study some science, with particular attention to evolutionary theory and paleontology and get back to us in a year or ten. Maybe then we'll take you seriously.
Thanks for the ping!
Built in high volume steroid dispenser.
I actually have volunteered to go to Mars - one way if necessary - several times. And I've volunteered for other assorted space missions. They have ignored me for too long!!! I'm starting a write in campaign. SEND FURBALL TO MARS!!!!!
And I don't want you interfering with my hot dog stand once I'm there, either. Harumpf.
And I don't want you interfering with my hot dog stand once I'm there, either. Harumpf.
No problem. I have the beer concession.
(Hot dogs! HA!)
I have researched quite a bit of science and so have many scientists that see the falsity of TOE...here's some interesting facts about the confused state of the proponents of evolution. Not out of my league at all. It's not hard to understand; doesn't take a genius. Anyways, I do hope that info will open your mind a little because the facts are there for us regardless of what agenda is trying to work through us.http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=813053
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.