Posted on 02/09/2008 6:25:24 PM PST by blam
Tooth Scan Reveals Neanderthal Mobility
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer
A 40,000-year-old tooth is seen in this undated hand out photo released by Greek Culture Ministry. Analysis of the tooth uncovered in southern Greece indicates for the first time that Neanderthals may have traveled more widely than previously thought, paleontologists announced on Friday, Feb. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Greek Culture Ministry)
(AP) -- Analysis of a 40,000-year-old tooth found in southern Greece suggests Neanderthals were more mobile than once thought, paleontologists said Friday.
Analysis of the tooth - part of the first and only Neanderthal remains found in Greece - showed the ancient human had spent at least part of its life away from the area where it died.
"Neanderthal mobility is highly controversial," said paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Some experts believe Neanderthals roamed over very limited areas, but others say they must have been more mobile, particularly when hunting, Harvati said.
Until now, experts only had indirect evidence, including stone used in tools, Harvati said. "Our analysis is the first that brings evidence from a Neanderthal fossil itself," she said.
The findings by the Max Planck Institute team were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The tooth was found in a seaside excavation in Greece's southern Peloponnese region in 2002.
The team analyzed tooth enamel for ratios of a strontium isotope, a naturally occurring metal found in food and water. Levels of the metal vary in different areas.
Eleni Panagopoulou of the Paleoanthropology-Speleology Department of Southern Greece said the tooth's levels of strontium showed that the Neanderthal grew up at least 12.5 miles from the discovery site.
"Our findings prove that ... their settlement networks were broader and more organized than we believed," Panagopoulou said.
Clive Finlayson, an expert on Neanderthals and director of the Gibraltar Museum, disagreed with the finding's significance.
"I would have been surprised if Neanderthals didn't move at least 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) in their lifetime, or even in a year ... We're talking about humans, not trees," Finlayson said.
On Retainer? Put it in writing. Oral contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on. They’re toothless.
Researching this stuff must be full filling.
Speaking of teeth, why do dentists appear to be sad?
They are always looking down in the mouth.
Why oh why are they messing around with my Grandma Eve’s teeth?
"Comparisons with the DNA of modern humans and of apes showed the Neanderthal was about halfway between a modern human and a chimpanzee...."
Great puns. You guys should receive some sort of plaque for your efforts.
I expectorate at least an honorable mention.
Filo pita IMO. Flossing over the truth I suspect.........;o)
Just WOW. The person died a whole 12.5 miles from where he grew up! They probably covered that distance in a days hunting.
Ummmmmmmm, the data says that they were sedentary farmers!
We've sequenced about seven million bases so far. Based on analysis from the first million bases, Neandertals were like humans about 96 percent of the time [meaning: at the sites of the genome where modern humans and chimps differ, the Neandertal sequence was much more likely to resemble modern humans, while it was the same as the chimp only four percent of the time.]Neanderthal is classified in genus Homo, as are we. And, other than ourselves, Neanderthal is the next most modern and advanced species in that genus. No serious scientists classify Neanderthal anywhere near the apes.The parts we're really interested in are the four percent where Neandertals are like chimps rather than humans. We hope those genes will be those that confer higher executive function. Genes for talking, cognition, or brain development would be most exciting. We imagine that as people find new genes they suspect are unique to humans and are involved in higher-order cognition, we'll be able to compare to them the Neandertal genome and see if they are different. Source (emphasis added)
Didn't I correct you on some of these same points back in December?
Some anthropologists just can't handle the tooth...
*groan*
40,000 years from now, anthropologists will study our teeth and conclude that we were back on the Gold Standard.
Thanks for the ping!
Paabo’s study consisted of fewer than 400 base pairs (379 base pairs out of a presumed original number in excess of 16,000) but apparently those details are not of common knowledge, or at least not to the ignorant author of that Express India piece you linked. Try this one:
http://www.unl.edu/rhames/neander/neander.htm
“The single Neandertal DNA sequence is distinct from all those known for humans and chimps... they calculated that the sequence ancestral to both modern and Neandertal mitochondria began to diverge some 550,000 to 690,000 years ago...”
That one crowns the subthread! Congratulations! :’)
July 10, 1997
Patricia Kahn and Ann Gibbons
(Monkey business?)
From a viewpoint of pure logic that simply is not possible. The neanderthal has been ruled out as a human ancestor precisely because the genetic gulf is too wide and all other hominids are more remote from us than the neanderthal. No hominid MORE remote than the neanderthal could plausibly be an ancestor to modern man; you'd need a hominid LESS remote.
Not so; modern humans are descended from archaic humans, and before that from various Homo sp. and Australopithecus. Somewhere late in the erectus stage the lines split, putting modern humans and Neanderthals on different paths.
I explained this to you back on December 10, 2007 by the way. Here is a brief graphic that might help.
You ever had any sort of a course in basic logic?
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