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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.
The only way to defeat Political Correctness/Newspeak is to hit it straight on and punch it in the nose........ Had to chuckle at that, but thought that would be a little Neanderthalish, well maybe not.
Charging in but the hot weather is inclined to slow me down, as I recall and consult Wikipedia again. Had to bring in Cro-Magnon man. 1868 in France at the Magnon caves the anthropologists discovered bones. You will probably be well aware of this, but anyway.....
Cro-Magnon was vaunted as taller, with less pronounced features and well skilled in tools. Said to have either mated or force Neanderthal to extinction, take your pick.
I suppose the fore runner of those bloomin' characters, the "Beautiful People".
Oh well, being Joe Sixpack does have it's advantages. (Excuse the ramble).
The way that I read it, is that everybody on earth but blacks share the same thing, whatever that ‘thing’ means.
You’d think a guy could have a little privacy in his own tent, but no.
I think that over the millenia, Cro-Magnon, Neanderthals, and whatever else was around were interbreeding to the point where none of them were exactly ‘pure’ breeds anymore. Inter-tribal warfare probably accounts for this. Defeat the enemy, take their women, breed a new generation that has the traits of both and successive generations will have a little bit of everybody...............
You should open your mind and read more scientific works. I’ll suggest Charles Darwin’s work for one. He was a good scientist. He learned and documented some important stuff. It’s controversial but still good, even after 150 years.
So you’re saying that, in Darwin’s not in the least humble opinion, there ARE races within the human species? Yes or no will do.
Bigger brains? They were probably conservative. That'd explain all the negative press they've gotten over the years.
As for 'races' and 'species', those are words that have different meanings to different people. I'm not going to slug it out with that tar baby.
Are people different and do all living things change with time. Unless there is something very unnatural happening, the answer is yes. Change is constant in the universe. Darwin pointed out that in the changing universe, some things win, some loose. The winners are still around. The loosers are extinct. Well, not all loosers go extinct. Some are supported by the government and continue to reproduce!
Thanks for answering.
Just as it is today...it's political. Look at the circa 1800 history/geography books. Yes, there was a God!!
Read about Agassiz at wiki
Wonder how much they teach about Agassiz in school. Bet they don’t say much more than he disagreed with Darwin.
You know, if I hadn’t had a copy of ‘The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned’, which happened to include a picture of a statue of Agassiz toppled from its perch and broken into the pavement below, I would not have even heard his name.
That said, the faith some have in Darwin is touching.
Mrs. Noah likely wasn't 'perfect in her generations' and the sons' wives likely weren't either. Hence the limited recurrence of the 'giants' after the flood.
Apparently this bottleneck was sufficient to reduce the extent of the genetic contamination to a level that did not threaten the human line of the Messiah, however.
And Darwin's very obvious fallacy was in assuming that the fact that 'things change' means that 'change created all things'.
German’s Pronouce it neander-TALL, while english speakers emphasize the “th”, like neander-THAL.
Does anyone remember the name of that movie??
You are correct. Knowledge is incremental. New ideas and discoveries are based on past knowledge. We’ll never know what knowledge was lost with the destruction of the Great Library Of Alexandria.
I’m thinking that Darwin’s work has gotten so much recognition because it was released into so much controversy. He did not intend it but he got in a lot of trouble for publishing his ideas.
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