Frequent inbreeding may have caused skeletal abnormalities in early humans

For some reason I am not surprised by the findings in this article. There are cultures even today who allow marriage to first cousins which genetically speaking is stupid; As are the offspring of such a union in many cases.

Also tribal and racism could have been a contributing factor in the inbreeding.

Early humans faced countless challenges as they fanned out of Africa: icy conditions, saber-tooth cats, and, according to a new study of ancient skeletons, an unusually high number of birth defects, both debilitating and relatively inconsequential.

Many human fossils from the Pleistocene (roughly 2.5 million B.C.E. to 9700 B.C.E.) have unusual features. For example, femur bones with abnormal bowing have been found from China to the Czech Republic. The skull of a toddler found in the Qafzeh cave in Israel had a swollen braincase consistent with hydrocephalus, a condition in which fluid floods the skull. And a fossilized man in Liguria in Italy had a bowed right upper arm bone but a normal left one.

However, several bodies show abnormalities consistent with known genetic mutations, and multiple individuals from at least one site exhibited several different conditions, suggesting the people might be related. It’s thought that most human populations at the time were small and isolated, Trinkaus says. In those conditions, inbreeding can lead to widespread harmful genetic mutations.

www.sciencemag.org...

a reply to: 727Sky
In fact in early human populations "not many people in the vicinity" would be sufficient explanation for the inbreeding. If the band did not meet other humans, racism would not be a factor.

What a bunch of homo sapiens.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: 727Sky
In fact in early human populations "not many people in the vicinity" would be sufficient explanation for the inbreeding. If the band did not meet other humans, racism would not be a factor.

My use of racism was more of an old world statement than the meaning in this new world; I should have been more clear.

Many tribes/nationalities even today feel/say if you are not like us you are below us. An example would be Asians who used to hate other Asians simple because the nationality was different... Yet if you go back far enough the breeding stock was probably the same for many of the hated or looked down upon nationalities.

Isolated hunter gatherer groups, other than meeting and getting along or stealing another groups women (American Indians among others had that act down pat) did not have much of a breeding choice unless there was some annual/semi Annual agreed upon meeting place to exchange goods, stories and women.

Even the old testament Bible (if I remember correctly) had stories about some biblical hero lying with his daughters for procreation. Royals throughout history marrying within their blood line to keep the royal blood line pure .. Plenty of historical stories before genetics was more or less understood. Like I said there are still idiots who think it is OK to marry and procreate with first cousins.

a reply to: 727Sky

Just gona put me banjo down to read that there....forgot I can't read,but I can eat a corn Cobb through me chicken mesh

This is plausible. We can assume that early humans that were wandering around may not have met other humans, so the chance for intermingling would have been reduced. I wonder how many early groups just died out through lack of contact.

If one believes the bible story of adam and eve.....then it was inevitable.

a reply to: 727Sky

no wonder they started banging neanderthals

a reply to: 727Sky

When they inbreed to the point of becoming clones...

originally posted by: weirdguy
a reply to: 727Sky

no wonder they started banging neanderthals

That is funny, but when I think about it, that might just be true.

I heard some statistics about red headed people. The TV news reported that 2% of the human population are true red heads. In another report it was said that around 2% of the genetics of Western Europeans came from Neanderthals. In a number of reports there were claims that the Neanderthals were red haired.

So yeah, the Cro-mags were doing the nasty with the Neanderthals. Considering the differences between the modern humans and Neanderthals, I'd say that they had to be pretty desperate to be interested in each other. But hey, I like red heads, so I can't blame them for wanting some of that.

ETA: It would be a great made for TV drama. Two desperate cave people from different clans find love in a savage and primitive land. Wait! That was a Darrel Hanna movie, "Clan of the Cave Bear" and that other movie "Quest for Fire" with Ray Dawn Chong.

Interesting premise. I often thought that the blatant abnormalities inherent to our skeletal system (a spine which is not tailored to upright bipedal ambulation, female hips which are not wide enough to permit the exit of a child's skull during labour, etc) were caused by genetic tampering by bad actors at the outset of the last prehistorical/early history of Homo Sapiens, and that the lack of intermediary evidence of a 'missing link' is also explained by that chain of reasoning. But to consider that the inbreeding postulated may have had negative effects is also worth considering. There is some textual evidence of apparent issues of breeding back in Biblical times, the Watchers who mated with humans & bred Nephilim mutant/hybrids which proceeded to commit genocide & cannibalism of the native humans. Perhaps engineering, species interbreeding & thereafter a procession of inbreeding occurred, as the 'new type' of humans kept very much to themselves in a dangerous world - which I believe, probably still had other species of early human roaming around in different territories.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I think sexual politics in prehistory was different to today. Rape was far more prominent. Not only during war like we still have in modern times but just all the time . Some societies even today have rape more a part of their culture than do the first world countries. To get more specific is of course considered racist but we see it when populations are mixed.

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck

originally posted by: weirdguy
a reply to: 727Sky

no wonder they started banging neanderthals

That is funny, but when I think about it, that might just be true.

I heard some statistics about red headed people. The TV news reported that 2% of the human population are true red heads. In another report it was said that around 2% of the genetics of Western Europeans came from Neanderthals. In a number of reports there were claims that the Neanderthals were red haired.

So yeah, the Cro-mags were doing the nasty with the Neanderthals. Considering the differences between the modern humans and Neanderthals, I'd say that they had to be pretty desperate to be interested in each other. But hey, I like red heads, so I can't blame them for wanting some of that.

ETA: It would be a great made for TV drama. Two desperate cave people from different clans find love in a savage and primitive land. Wait! That was a Darrel Hanna movie, "Clan of the Cave Bear" and that other movie "Quest for Fire" with Ray Dawn Chong.

The morphological differences between Neanderthal and archaic H. Sapiens wasn’t really that big. And while some Neanderthal did have red hair, we didn’t get it from them. Different mutations code for the red hair in each species. We evolved that one independently just like lighter skin and blue eyes.

Me and Quasimoto, we was kangs