Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Neandertals Not Our Ancestors, DNA Study Suggests (Whewww!!!)
National Geographic News ^ | 5/14/03 | Hillary Mayell

Posted on 05/14/2003 10:49:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

One more piece of evidence has been added to the debate on whether there was any interbreeding between Neandertals and early modern humans.

Around 50,000 years ago, small groups of anatomically modern humans migrated out of Africa and began to colonize the rest of the world. Known as Cro-Magnons for the site in France where the earliest remains were found, these early humans co-existed with the Neandertals then living in Europe until the Neandertals became extinct roughly 30,000 years ago. What happened and why—did the two groups war, did they mate, did they even meet?—has been an enduring puzzle in the study of human origins.

A team of geneticists from Italy and Spain compared the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of two Cro-Magnons that were 23,000 and 25,000 years old respectively, four Neandertal specimens, 29,000 to 42,000 years old, and a large database of modern human mtDNA to shed some light on the issue.

The authors found that the Cro-Magnon mtDNA fit well within the spectrum of genetic variation exhibited by modern Europeans, but differed sharply from that of the Neandertals. They conclude that it is unlikely that Neandertals contributed to the current European gene pool.

"Our results add to the evidence collected previously in different fields, making the hypothesis of a 'Neandertal heritage' very unlikely," said Giorgio Bertorelle, a geneticist at University di Ferrara in Italy, and a co-author of the study.

The results were published in the May 12-16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Understanding Early Human Origins

The research was designed to address a question raised by two different theories on human evolution. The replacement model holds that a wave of anatomically modern humans left Africa around 50,000 years ago, and eventually replaced the existing Neandertal populations.

Advocates of the multi-regional theory argue that there was gene flow between the two populations and that modern humans have dual ancestry: archaic and modern.

"These results match with views, including mine, that the Neandertals were largely or totally replaced rather than absorbed into the Cro-Magnon gene pool, but the samples are small and it is possible that other samples or other genes might tell a different story," said Chris Stringer, director of the Human Origins program at the Natural History Museum in London.

Mitochondrial DNA is passed solely through the mother.

"We can say pretty absolutely that Neandertals didn't contribute mitochondrial DNA to modern humans, but that's just one locus and doesn't carry very strong implications for the rest of the genome," said Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah. "I'm not saying they did interbreed, it's just that mtDNA is a restricted data set."

Typically, if there is interbreeding between two groups of unequal status, it often occurs between the males of the more developed culture and the females of the less developed culture.

"An article was recently published speculating that the selective advantage that modern humans had was reproductive; that the development of a broader pelvis and wider birth canal to accommodate bigger skulls and larger brains made the difference," said Harpending. "If that were the case, it would be easy to imagine that Neandertal women breeding with anatomically modern men would have had a real hard time, and mtDNA might not show up in the modern human genome."

Multi-regional proponents say the lack of similar mtDNA between Neandertals and Cro-Magnons doesn't answer the question of interbreeding.

"What multi-regionalists have been saying all along is that it's about mixture and evolution; that there was gene flow and that Neandertals are one of the ancestors of modern humans," said Milford Wolpoff, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan. "What these data show is that people who lived 20,000 years ago look [genetically] more like people today than the people who lived 45,000 years ago."

"It seems to me that's proving the obvious. It's not telling us that much about the progress in evolution," he said. "You would expect Neandertals to look more and more like modern humans as time goes on."

Looking to the Future

The analysis of ancient nuclear DNA is not technically feasible at the moment, and probably won't be anytime in the near future, the researchers say. But advances in the field of genetics and the mapping of the human genome has provided a flood of information that may someday yield the answers.

"What we need now is to find our way through the databases," said Harpending. "None of the models we have now can explain all of the evidence."



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: ancestors; archaeology; crevolist; dnastudy; genetics; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; humanorigins; multiregionalism; neandertal; neanderthals; suggests
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last
More Information About Human Origins



News Stories


Cannibalism Normal for Early Humans?


Neandertals Had Highly Capable Hands, Study Says


Did Neandertals Lack Smarts to Survive?


Java Skull Raises Questions on Human Family Tree


First Humans in Australia Dated to 50,000 Years Ago


1.8 Million-Year-Old Hominid Jaw Found


When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?


Documentary Redraws Human's Family Tree


Fossil Implies Our Early Kin Lived in Trees, Study Says


Controversy Over Famed Ancient Skull: Ape or Human?


Skull Fossil Opens Window Into Early Period of Human Origins


Skull Fossil Challenges Out-of-Africa Theory


New Study Supports Idea That Primates, Dinosaurs Coexisted


Human Fossil Adds Fuel to Evolution Debate


Did Our Species Mate With Other Human Species?


Did Humans and Neandertals Battle for Control of the Middle East?


Killer Cats Hunted Human Ancestors


Adolescence Came Late in Human Evolution, Study Shows


Viewpoint: Is It Time to Revise the System of Scientific Naming?


African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution


Africa's Imperiled Rock Art Documented Before it Disappears


Bones, Tools Push Back Human Settlement in Arctic Region


Oldest Asian Tools Show Early Human Tolerance of Variable Climate


Telltale Face Betrays Neandertals as Non-Human


Fossils From Ethiopia May Be Earliest Human Ancestor


New Face Added to Humankind's Family Tree


Discoveries Breathe New Life into Human Origins Debate

1 posted on 05/14/2003 10:49:30 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Evolution at its best: genocide.
2 posted on 05/14/2003 11:59:41 PM PDT by rmlew ("Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Don't worry humanists and atheists. You can still claim to have been accidentally formed from a blob of primoral mud.

Meanwhile, us God-fearing folk will continue celebrating that we were "fearfully and wonderfully" made by a Creator.

3 posted on 05/15/2003 12:21:54 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Just as well neanderthals arent around anymore. Can you imagine the affirmative action benefits they would get?
4 posted on 05/15/2003 12:25:10 AM PDT by Godel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Godel
I remember seeing something about a collapsed roof cave dig ...

in sw Asia -- china that was hundred of thousands years old ---

that had all european skeletons in it ... all carbon dated too !


5 posted on 05/15/2003 12:38:17 AM PDT by f.Christian (( the VERY sick mind - won't recognize facts -- REALITY -- probability anymore ! ))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: f.Christian
What a load of rubbish. How on earth would they know they are European?
6 posted on 05/15/2003 4:50:00 AM PDT by Yaron
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: AmericaUnited
My imaginary friend beats your imaginary friend anyday.
7 posted on 05/15/2003 4:52:18 AM PDT by Yaron
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Godel
Just as well neanderthals arent around anymore

They're here. Today we call them DemocRATs. (e.g.: Klintons, Ellen Goodman, Teddy Kennedy, Robert Byrd-Brain, etc. etc. etc. etc.)

8 posted on 05/15/2003 5:06:59 AM PDT by LuisBasco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Yaron
How on earth would they know they are European?

They were wearing berets.

9 posted on 05/15/2003 5:11:00 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (V-Twin mind with a Moped modem....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Tijeras_Slim
You can understand if the Neanderthal were French why the Cro-Magnan so easily took over.
10 posted on 05/15/2003 5:17:03 AM PDT by FITZ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: FITZ
Cheese eating surrender homonids.
11 posted on 05/15/2003 5:18:20 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (V-Twin mind with a Moped modem....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Tijeras_Slim
I wonder how this news will make Mrs. CD feel. (She's a redhead)
;~)

Redheads 'are neanderthal'

12 posted on 05/15/2003 5:24:01 AM PDT by Constitution Day
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: LuisBasco
LOL! I was thinking the same thing. Too bad the mitochondrial rna didn't pan out: It would have explained a lot of things.
13 posted on 05/15/2003 6:01:16 AM PDT by Adder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: f.Christian
all carbon dated too !

Better check your sources. Carbon dating is good for only about 40,000 years. After that the remaining amounts of radioactive carbon become too small to measure. With some very sophisticated measuring equipment, maybe 50-60,000 years BP. Hence C14 dating for remains hundreds of thousand of years old is not possible. Other dating techniques for older fossils do not involve carbon.

14 posted on 05/15/2003 8:46:17 AM PDT by B.Bumbleberry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
"Our results add to the evidence collected previously in different fields, making the hypothesis of a 'Neandertal heritage' very unlikely," said Giorgio Bertorelle...

Doesn't that make the entire theory of evolution very unlikely? In other words, if we're not descended from neanderthals, then from what? Neanderthals and homo sapiens are the two basic species of human-like creatures we have evidence for; everything else is basically apes or ape-like creatures.

15 posted on 05/15/2003 9:50:44 AM PDT by martianagent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Yaron
My imaginary friend beats your imaginary friend anyday.

Oh really? And how do you come to that conclusion?

16 posted on 05/15/2003 2:23:49 PM PDT by AmericaUnited
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: martianagent
One can explain the separate adn competing hominid species of H. Sapien Neanderthalis and H. Sapien Sapien(Cro-Magnon/Modern Humans) quite easily. They each spereately evolved from H. Erectus. Neanderthals left Africa first, Cro-Magnon came 80,000 years later. Cro-Magnon were smarter and more adaptable. Thus they out competed and/or killed off the Neanderthals.

This is hardly unique. Bonbos and Chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans. These great apes are virtually identical. However, Chimps are more competitive and will hunt for food. The Bonobos preffer a pure cegitarian diet and have a society built of sexual relations. Bonobos are dying out. Chimps survive.

17 posted on 05/15/2003 4:46:45 PM PDT by rmlew ("Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: rmlew
Bonobos are dying out.

They also sound a lot like the French!

18 posted on 05/15/2003 4:52:17 PM PDT by FITZ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: rmlew
In my undergraduate years, I decided to take Geology, Anthropology and Archeology for my Science requirements. I enjoyed them very much; did a paper on dendrochronology which I thought was very interesting (evidently my professor agreed, he gave me an A).

One lecture I remember was about Neanderthal Man. The witticism tossed out by the lecturer stays with me today: "If a Neanderthal man were with us today, I suppose he would look just like Fred Flintstone."

19 posted on 05/15/2003 4:56:20 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: rmlew
One can explain the separate adn competing hominid species of H. Sapien Neanderthalis and H. Sapien Sapien(Cro-Magnon/Modern Humans) quite easily. They each spereately evolved from H. Erectus.

Really? On a scale of one to ten with an ape being one and a human ten, the neanderthal would be about a nine, while home erectus would be about a six or a seven. If we can't be descended from neanderthals because they're too apelike, how are we descended from homo erectus which is even more apelike? Or did you think home erectus was just some gay guy with a hard on???

20 posted on 05/19/2003 7:50:31 AM PDT by martianagent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson