To Be Or Not To Be Neanderthal, That Is The Question

Originally posted by Heliocentric
This text might be interesting concerning the history of type O blood in Homo Sapiens:

How The Neanderthals Became The Basques
www.aoi.com.au...

That said, type O blood is well-distributed over the world (63% of the World Population share it), particularly among Native Central and Latin Americans. It is also not sure that all Neanderthals had type O blood, even though research indicate that it was a dominant. Interesting to note is that Oetzi the Ice Man had type O blood, so did the early Celtic populations. Perhaps we can speculate in an early, wide-spread type O blood presence in European Homo Sapiens thanks to Neanderthal interbreeding.

Also interesting - but speculative - is the theory of personality traits in relation to blood type.

In an independent study of 45 MBA students, naturopathic physician Peter D'Adamo reported that type O’s most often described themselves in ways related to the following characteristics; responsible, decisive, organized, objective, rule-conscious, and practical. Both male and female Type O’s reported a higher percentage of the mesomorphic body type (stocky, strong-built, massive torso) when compared to controls. Interestingly, Type O’s also scored significantly higher than the rest in “sensing” – using the 5 senses to gather information, and in the sensing-thinking combination, indicating that they are more detail and fact oriented, logical, precise and orderly. D'Adamo identifies type O's as the earliest human blood type:

en.wikipedia.org...

As I already speculated, if some populations have up to 5% Neanderthal genes, could 'Neanderthal' mentality express itself in their behavior, and could some of that be tied into blood type?

Hi Helio,

What matters is the Rhesus factor--whether the blood, regardless of type, is positive or negative.

The genetics of blood groupings is very interesting. They know, and have known for a long time, that people with certain blood types are more likely to suffer from diseases. For example, people with B blood are more prone to cancer. O's are more prone to heart disease.

Do you have a link to D'Adamo's study? It's sounds like a sociological thing, not medical or genetic.

The "O came first" theory is being challenged more and more. Some biologists now think that A came first, followed by O, then B. See Evolutionary Dynamics of the Human ABO Gene; Calafell et al; Human Genetics, vol 124 #2.