Posted on 07/19/2011 8:40:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
"This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," says Dr. Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East.
Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. Meanwhile, early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question on everyone's mind has always been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association.
"In addition, because our methods were totally independent of Neanderthal material, we can also conclude that previous results were not influenced by contaminating artifacts," adds Dr. Labuda.
Dr. Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia.
"There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals. This is a very nice result, and further analysis may help determine more details," says Dr. Nick Patterson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, a major researcher in human ancestry who was not involved in this study.
"Dr. Labuda and his colleagues were the first to identify a genetic variation in non-Africans that was likely to have come from an archaic population. This was done entirely without the Neanderthal genome sequence, but in light of the Neanderthal sequence, it is now clear that they were absolutely right!" adds Dr. David Reich, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, one of the principal researchers in the Neanderthal genome project.
So, speculates Dr. Labuda, did these exchanges contribute to our success across the world? "Variability is very important for long-term survival of a species," says Dr. Labuda. "Every addition to the genome can be enriching." An interesting match, indeed.
well...this throws a monkey wrench into the whole nazi view of a master race doesn’t it? So much for a pure aryan race. If they truly managed to purify the “white race” with an extensive breeding program, they would end up with a primitive short stocky neanderthal cave man.
ah-hahaha!
The other side of the argument is that, rather than being the pure species, they are only a precursor species to modern man. Perhaps truly modern man is a Homo Sapiens-Neanderthal hybrid, rather than just the straight Homo Sapiens (which is itself a hybridization of earlier hominids). Besides, one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Neanderthal is a larger brain than Homo Sapiens. Hybridization may have been an evolutionary benefit to Europeans and Asians, allowing them to adapt to and eventually prosper in the harsher northern climates. It also might explain why the only part of Africa to have developed a great civilization is in the extreme northeast and populated by peoples who, though born in Africa, are not what the world knows as “Africans.” I don’t necessarily subscribe to any of these views, but the argument can be made if people want to play those games.
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or you’re agreeing with the statement.......;^)
Yeah, Mrs. Noah could have been a Neanderthal!
We know Noah liked to get drunk.......................
The only way to defeat Political Correctness/Newspeak is to hit it straight on and punch it in the nose................
Mesopotamia may be the ‘Cradle of Civilization’, but the people may have come from somewhere else....................
You dare not venture where angels fear to tread?...............
How do you know that the section of DNA that was discovered isn't connected with outward appearance?
One of Bill klintlons climate experts was a barber. Now we have a know it all dR of Department of Pediatrics.
Here Here.... If I could write, I’d sign a petition..
Not much is said about Noah’s daughters-in-law, maybe one of them was of mixed heritage?
LOL. Noah had beer goggles?
1. beer goggles
phenomenon in which one’s consumption of alcohol makes physically unattractive persons appear beautiful; summed up by the phrase, “there are no ugly women at closing time”
Really? Do you have a reference for Homo sapiens neanderthalensis being shorter than Homo sapiens sapiens from the same period? Everything I have read shows the Neanderthals as having been significantly stronger and at least as tall.
Genesis 9:
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.
21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.
So blacks are different than the rest of the human race? This is about blacks, not whites.
Depends on which side of the Sahara you’re on..............
When a kid we had a perverted dog that raped our tomcat.
did you get dats or cogs?
Of course not,
They cannot reproduce.
Neanderthals were taller and stronger the Cro mags. They had bigger brains too.
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.