Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

[PBlast]

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1987568,00.html?hpt=C2

Some cool stuff here, doesn't surprise me though that some of us still carry the neanderthal gene, haha.

The genetic information turned up some intriguing findings, indicating, for instance, that at some point after early modern humans migrated out of Africa, they mingled and mated with Neanderthals, possibly in the Middle East or North Africa as early as 80,000 years ago. If that is the case, it would have occurred significantly earlier than scientists who support the interbreeding hypothesis would have expected.

Comparisons with DNA from modern humans show that some Neanderthal DNA has survived to the present day. Moreover, by analyzing ancient DNA alongside modern samples, the team was able to identify a handful of genetic changes that evolved in modern humans some time after their ancestors and Neanderthals diverged between 440,000 and 270,000 years ago.

[fishepa]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

Yeah....

[PBlast]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

Haha, well I found it interesting, it's a nice informative break from the usual self-loathing, woman hating threads .

[MassNole]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

God bless evolution. It is interesting that the DNA can be traced back to Neanderthals and I'd say from my days as a college student that DNA comes into full bloom with 18-23 year old males.

[PBlast]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

I guess my days of taking bites out of still live fish and clubbing women with giant clubs are nearing an end .

[Pared]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

I could've told you this without some study after visiting the Madden forum.

[fishepa]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

Haha, well I found it interesting, it's a nice informative break from the usual self-loathing, woman hating threads .

It is definitely interesting, I think it's complete hogwash, but to each his own!

[BurghFan]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

I'd say from my days as a college student that DNA comes into full bloom with 18-23 year old males.

I could've told you this without some study after visiting the Madden forum.

LOL, good stuff.

[PBlast]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

Haha yeah, it's definitely not my intention to get the whole Evolution debate going, I've never had a thread locked and I don't intend to :P.

[allBthere]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

It is definitely interesting, I think it's complete hogwash, but to each his own!

I'm a McGill grad who studied Archaeology mainly. I studied under the best in the world in this subject and my biggest paper was on the (possible) interactions between regular humans (homo sapiens) and Neanderthals.

they lived in the same area for about 10,000 years, so one can safely assume that they had run-ins with each other. What isn't certain is what happened.

In my research I argued that it was one of the following possibilities that brought Neanderthals to an end.

1) extinction via warfare vs sapeins
2) extinction via disease via sapiens * that was my original idea extrapolated from classical history ex. euro's and native americans
3) extinction via natural selection pressured by land competition and migration further up mountain ranges
4) extinction via interbreeding with sapiens - human bands and number were lager which would have basically engulfed them (although arguments raged whether breeding was possible)

- or some combination such as mild war-fare and migration and disease.

The bottom line is it's not provable to an absolute and will remain unknown. It is extremely fascinating though to think of mankind's first encounter with a different species of homo. Imagine witnessing that! what would the first inclination be? At this point in history migrating bands probably didn't war so much with eachother and would have had to interact on occasion especially to curtail incest. I wonder if they immediately recognized neanderthals as fundamentally different?

It's amazing really.

[Amoo316]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

I could've told you this without some study after visiting the Madden forum.

Funny I was thinking that same thing after the Cinco De Mayo incident and subsequent rebuttal.

[BurghFan]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

I'm a McGill grad who studied Archaeology mainly. I studied under the best in the world in this subject and my biggest paper was on the (possible) interactions between regular humans (homo sapiens) and Neanderthals.

they lived in the same area for about 10,000 years, so one can safely assume that they had run-ins with each other. What isn't certain is what happened.

In my research I argued that it was one of the following possibilities that brought Neanderthals to an end.

1) extinction via warfare vs sapeins
2) extinction via disease via sapiens * that was my original idea extrapolated from classical history ex. euro's and native americans
3) extinction via natural selection pressured by land competition and migration further up mountain ranges
4) extinction via interbreeding with sapiens - human bands and number were lager which would have basically engulfed them (although arguments raged whether breeding was possible)

- or some combination such as mild war-fare and migration and disease.

The bottom line is it's not provable to an absolute and will remain unknown. It is extremely fascinating though to think of mankind's first encounter with a different species of homo. Imagine witnessing that! what would the first inclination be? At this point in history migrating bands probably didn't war so much with eachother and would have had to interact on occasion especially to curtail incest. I wonder if they immediately recognized neanderthals as fundamentally different?

It's amazing really.

Sounds like an interesting paper. I'm very interested in genetics myself would like to read the paper of which the news story posted by OP is about. One interesting about H. neanderthalensis that the story didn't mention is that they actually had a larger brain capacity than fully modern H. sapiens sapiens. However, I think I read a news story some years ago about some researchers examining the structure of the neanderthal hyoid bone and thoat structure and determing that they were not sufficiently adapted for spoken language. I could be wrong though as I think I was still in high school when I read that article so it was a long time ago.

[stewaat]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

God bless evolution. It is interesting that the DNA can be traced back to Neanderthals and I'd say from my days as a college student that DNA comes into full bloom with 18-23 year old males.

I'm not trying to bring religion or any type of discussion into anything.

BUT...the bolded made me LOL

[daflyboys]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

It is extremely fascinating though to think of mankind's first encounter with a different species of homo.

I remember my first encounter.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clGefvxof_U&feature=related

[ruserl88]

Re: Study: Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

I remember my first encounter.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clGef...eature=related

that ain't right .... but still funny as hell