Did you know that everyone with European and Asian ancestry has Neanderthal genes,
but those who are indigenous sub-Saharan Africans do not?
"When our ancestors first migrated out of Africa around 60,000 years ago, they were not alone. At that time, at least two other species of hominid cousins walked the Eurasian landmass—Neanderthals and Denisovans. As our modern human ancestors migrated through Eurasia, they encountered the Neanderthals and interbred. Because of this, a small amount of Neanderthal DNA was introduced into the modern human gene pool.
“Everyone living outside of Africa today has a small amount of Neanderthal in them, carried as a living relic of these ancient encounters. A team of scientists comparing the full genomes of the two species concluded that most Europeans and Asians have between 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA. Indigenous sub-Saharan Africans have no Neanderthal DNA because their ancestors did not migrate through Eurasia.”
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/neanderthal/
I wonder if the lighter skin color was partially inherited from Neanderthals.
Really adds new meaning to the old insult about being a Neanderthal doesn’t it? We (those of us of European descent) have been calling the people in Africa the savages when actually we are the ones with genes from a race that couldn’t survive.
Really adds new meaning to the old insult about being a Neanderthal doesn't it? We (those of us of European descent) have been calling the people in Africa the savages when actually we are the ones with genes from a race that couldn't survive.For what it's worth - we do have this archetype of neanderthals as lumbering oafs, but evidence nevertheless suggests a species very clever in their own relative way. They survived during some of our planet's harshest periods and material artefacts recovered from the areas in which they lived portray communities of individuals helping the sick and infirm, having deep social bonds, etc
Really adds new meaning to the old insult about being a Neanderthal doesn't it? We (those of us of European descent) have been calling the people in Africa the savages when actually we are the ones with genes from a race that couldn't survive.For what it's worth - we do have this archetype of neanderthals as lumbering oafs, but evidence nevertheless suggests a species very clever in their own relative way. They survived during some of our planet's harshest periods and material artefacts recovered from the areas in which they lived portray communities of individuals helping the sick and infirm, having deep social bonds, etc Interesting stuff. It would be really fascinating to see how they lived and how homo sapiens managed to dominate and replace them. That time period is definitely on my bucket list of places to visit when i get my flux capacitor working.
One of the best books written on Neanderthals IMO is Svante Pääbo’s Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes. He is a geneticist who studied the difference in our DNA as compared to that of our cousins. He also details the interactions between them and theorizes why the Neanderthals died out and Cro-Magnon prevailed, hence us, lighter skin and all. It’s a good read for anyone interested in this topic.
Also Mac, you may be interested in reading about what came after the Last Glacial Maxim when Homo Sapiens developed civilizations starting with small villages Ca. 20,000 BCE to 5,000 BCE. Steven Mithin’s After The Ice gives a detailed account of the beginning of human civilization after the demise of the Neanderthal. It too is a good read and is from the perspective of a Paleoanthropologist who is dropped into the time period and travels through time to view the periodic changes from hunters to huts and wild grass domestication to eventual city states. He cites current anthropological evidence to build the picture. It’s almost like a first person account, interesting.
Cap’t Jack
Thx Jack. I’ll have to add that to my reading list
No problem Mac but personally I believe that the Neanderthals died out by being over vaccinated, leading to their eventual demise. Love the cat videos!
Cap’t Jack
No problem Mac but personally I believe that the Neanderthals died out by being over vaccinated, leading to their eventual demise. Love the cat videos! Cap't JackLOL.. Shhhhhhh... don't tell peacegirl. We don't want her to have even more evidence.
No problem Mac but personally I believe that the Neanderthals died out by being over vaccinated, leading to their eventual demise. Love the cat videos! Cap't JackLOL.. Shhhhhhh... don't tell peacegirl. We don't want her to have even more evidence. She doesn't actually have any real evidence, only a series of anecdotes.
She doesn’t actually have any real evidence, only a series of anecdotes.I mean like for real; there was this anthropologist once who found this syringe next to some Neanderthal bones and he told his cousin who told some other science guy who told the History Channel guy and I saw it on TV. Refute that provaxers, yeah. Real proof that Neanderthals were actually ancient aliens who vaccinated themselves to death. Sorry to high Jack a thread but I find it sad and amusing at the same time. Cap't Jack