Posted on 05/06/2010 11:38:16 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
There is a little Neanderthal in nearly all of us, according to scientists who compared the genetic makeup of humans with that of our closest ancient relatives.
Most people living outside Africa can trace up to 4% of their DNA to a Neanderthal origin, a consequence of interbreeding between the two groups after the great migration from the contintent.
Anthropologists have long speculated that early humans may have mated with Neanderthals, but the latest study provides the strongest evidence so far, suggesting that such encounters took place around 60,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East.
Small, pioneering groups of modern humans began to leave Africa 80,000 years ago and reached land occupied by the Neanderthals as they spread into Eurasia. The two may have lived alongside each other in small groups until the Neanderthals died out 30,000 years ago.
Scientists led by Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig took four years to sequence the whole Neanderthal genome from powdered bone fragments taken from three females who lived in Europe 40,000 years ago.
To see how similar the Neanderthal was to modern humans, the team compared the ancient DNA with the genomes of five people from France, China, southern Africa, western Africa and Papua New Guinea. The study is the first to attempt a whole-genome comparison between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Researchers found that modern humans and Neanderthals shared 99.7% of their DNA, which was inherited from a common ancestor 400,000 years ago. Further analysis revealed that Neanderthals were more closely related to modern humans who left Africa than to the descendants of those who stayed. Between 1% and 4% of the DNA in modern Europeans, Asians and those as far afield as Papua New Guinea, was inherited from Neanderthals.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
...and football...............
I keep telling you people. Test Dan Dierdorf.
“Hey, which one of you guys was poking the Neanderthals again?”
“Oog, was it you?”
“No chief, it wasn’t me!!”
“Ahrk, was it you again?????”
“Huh, what was that??”
“Ahrk, I KNEW it was you!!! No more mammoth balls for you, fellah!!!!!!”
Men? It’s those trashy redheaded Neanderthal babes.
Is this not one of the strongest chess players in the world (Magnus Carlsen)?
If some do it with sheep it’s not far-fetched that others did it with Neanderthals.
Come to think of it, my Uncle does look a bit like a Greyface Dartmoor. Gotta have a chat with Mom and clear that up.
What did they say about Gingers and Neanderthals?
And here’s my buddy Lemmy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Manx_loaghtan.jpg/800px-Manx_loaghtan.jpg
Ermmm. Yeah. There’s not much doubt about that. Who cares.
btt
Better looking than what you see in the bar around closing time.
I'll bet if you look into the reconstructionist's contacts, this "doll" is based on someone they know.
There is no Neanderthal in Obama. His DNA shows primate ancestors much to the embarrassment to those good souls.
We have seen bad science form global warming and several frauds in evolution. Where is the data, all I see is opinions.
Perhaps that's because the racism gene is African?
I believe my comment was unwarranted. Please erase.
Thank you.
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