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Neanderthals lived in Europe until about 35,000 years ago, disappearing at the same time modern humans were spreading across the continent. The new study, co-led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator David Reich at Harvard Medical School and Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, provides the first genetic evidence that humans interbred with Neanderthals in Europe. The scientists reported their findings in the June 22, 2015, issue of the journal Nature.
That suggested the Oase individual's ancestry was recent. As DNA is passed on from generation to generation, segments are broken up and recombined, so that the DNA inherited from any one individual becomes interspersed with the DNA of other ancestors. Reich found segments of intact Neanderthal DNA in the fossil that were large enough to indicate that the Oase individual had a Neanderthal ancestor just four to six generations back. That suggests that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals after they had arrived in Europe.
originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: theantediluvian
Thanks for posting this!
This would extend the time that Neanderthals were known to be in existence too, would it not?
originally posted by: DazDaKing
a reply to: theantediluvian
Interesting stuff.
One of the more startling facts of ancient religion is the theme of humans breeding with a larger race, who are seen as Gods or Sons of Gods. They are also spoken of having died out to something that the humans survived.
Science has shown us conclusively that we interbred with a significantly larger humanoid (neanderthals were 7 foot tall on average if I'm not mistaken) and that this race did not survive a period that we did.
Were the Neanderthals the first to teach us about higher concepts such as giving attachment to the stars? We know our communication was limited however (in terms of linguistic sophistication) so it is questionable as to how this would have happened.
I believe we've also concluded from ancient Neanderthal burial sites that they did exhibit 'religious' or spiritual beliefs before we did - so perhaps there is some merit to that possibility.
Are our religious stories a remnant of ancient oral traditions from a time when we actively walked and bred with other humanoids on Earth? An interesting notion indeed.
Another fascinating point about the Neanderthals is the fact that they had mostly red hair - correct me if I'm mistaken. There are numerous legends linked to red-haired giants, if one wishes to do his research.
These are especially prevalent amongst Native Americans, of which tribes have claimed that the red-haired giants visited the inland long before modern man.
Some have theorised that these were the Vikings. Is there an ancient link between the Celts, the Vikings and Neanderthals?
In fact, there seem to be three key groups of modernly anatomical humans that constitute the modern European populace - the Native African People, the Nordic people and the people of the Tibetan/Asian region. These are the areas from which we seem to see movement incur into Europe from.
Were the Neanderthals the Native Europeans? What sealed their fate? Did we continue moving north because Europe was already settled land in the routes we took?
This is all actually very puzzling. Why were humans segregated in this manner in the first place? How do the Mesopotamians fit into this? Are they strictly an off-shoot of Africans who had travelled north?
If we assume the Out of Africa theory, we have to ask why would one band of humans end up inhabiting the Nordic region? Every destination on the way there would've been more suitable for settlement, even in the past. Yet, this land was occupied during the stone age and earlier.
Even more puzzling is the fact that we found out this year that the white skin pigment must've appeared in Europe only around 7,000 years ago.
This breaks our convention of assuming the white skin pigment was triggered by UV radiation. We would've expected to find the white skin pigment prevalent but this specimen's bloodline had been in Europe for up to 35,000 years and yet he was still brown-skinned.
Interestingly, the specimen had blue eyes and was genetically most related to the modern people of Sweden or Finland.
What the hell is going on? Can someone please provide me a clear explanation of what the modernly accepted time line and sequencing of events is for all of this?
An interesting side note is that the gene that coded for red hair in HN is not the same gene that codes for red hair in us.
originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: peter vlar
An interesting side note is that the gene that coded for red hair in HN is not the same gene that codes for red hair in us.
I did not know that!
...By ~60KA HSS met their first HN in the Levant(modern day Israel, Lebanon and Syria) where they found that the HN had superior lithic technologies. The 2 species or subspecies, lived in the same areas, sometimes the same "villages", learned and shared different technologies amongst each other, worked together, mated and buried their dead together with similar grave goods. As HSS and HSS/Hybrid populations began to expand again they moved farther north into Turkey, Western Asia and eventually Europe by ~45-40KA...
originally posted by: St Udio
this is the basis for the Genesis tale of Cain (the HSS, farmer/civilization bringer) killing Able (the HN, shepherd, animist)
the true Neanderthals got bred out of existence , the poetic death of Abel...is what I read between-the-lines
"It was assumed that the lighter skin was something needed in high latitudes, to synthesize vitamin D in places where UV light is lower than in the tropics," Lalueza-Fox told LiveScience.
Scientists had assumed this was true because people need vitamin D for healthy bones, and can synthesize it in the skin with energy from the sun's UV rays, but darker skin, like that of the hunter-gatherer man, prevents UV-ray absorption.
But the new discovery shows that latitude alone didn't drive the evolution of Europeans' light skin. If it had, light skin would have become widespread in Europeans millennia earlier, Lalueza-Fox said.