| Redheads 'are neanderthal' |
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| BY A CORRESPONDENT |
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| RED hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals, scientists believe. Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford say that 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, said: “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 per cent of Scots have red hair and a further 40 per cent 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. |
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Apparently Teddy is closer to a Neanderthal than the nominated judges.
Er, no, on the "migrant" part. Neanderthals were home bodies. The raw materials for their stone tools seldom orginated from more than a few miles away (contrasting to often dozens and sometimes hundreds of miles away for Homo sapiens sapiens) and studies of their leg bones suggest they did not walk long distances (no evidence of the anterior/posterior stresses associated with extendeded striding paces, but lots of evidence of lateral stresses associated with slow paces over uneven terrain. Sapiens of the time wondered all over the place and traded extensively. Neanderthals seem to have found themselves a nice little valley and stayed there.