Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.
The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.
The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome - the "instruction manual" describing how these ancient humans were put together.
Between 1% and 4% of genomes of people in Eurasia come from Neanderthals.
But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.
The most widely-accepted theory of modern human origins - known as Out of Africa - holds that the ancestors of living humans (Homo sapiens) originated in Africa some 200,000 years ago.
BBC
Is it really a surprise that there are Neandrethal genes in our DNA? Just look at the settlers in Palestine...or, to be fair and balanced, the religious fanatics who stone women for driving in Saudi Arabia...or even some of the people who posted comments here before you cracked down...of course, some folks are more Neandrethal than others. (I admit this line of reasoning may be unfair to Neandrethals.)
ReplyDeleteIt really is unfair to Neanderthals, Joe, because many scientists think they may have been smarter than us.
ReplyDeleteIf they were so smart, then why are we here and they ain't?
ReplyDelete<span>I don't know if they were smarter, not something I read anyway, but that they were smart. One theory is that they were outnumbered, outsmarted and overwhelmed by the Homo Sapiens pure aggression. But all this is just speculation. Another theory which was prevalent for sometime is that interbreeding between the 2 species would not have been possible. Too incompatible, something which was disproved by this new study. So....
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I'm a little wary of these findings. I've heard this Neanderthal ancestry theory before. I got the impression then that it was about demonstrating a difference between white Europeans and black Africans, Neanderthal being in Europe.
ReplyDeleteJoe, it could have been genocide, or more that they were more adapted to ice age weather conditions, having evolved in Europe, where it was obviously colder.
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