Neanderthals and humans lived side by side in Middle eastern caves and even interbred, research find

[ashling]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2210403/Neanderthals-human-lived-side-Middle-eastern-caves-interbred-research-finds.html

Neanderthals may have lived side by side with early humans and possibly interbred with them, according to new research.

Stone axes and sharp flint arrowheads of both branches of the human race have been discovered in limestone caves in northern Israel.

The findings, reported in the Times, have led archeologists to believe the two sub-species found harmony in a coastal mountain range that today is in a state of war with its neighbours.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2210403/Neanderthals-human-lived-side-Middle-eastern-caves-interbred-research-finds.html#ixzz27uHGa2yQ
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[Turbineguy]

1. If those Humans had only known

that those recessive genes would become today's republican party members...

[Control-Z]

2. Well, now that answers

a question or two.

[JaneyVee]

3. Hence, the Tea Party.

[cthulu2016]

4. How to write a Daily Mail headline

Just remove "may have."

Headlone: Neanderthals and human lived side by side in Middle Eastern caves and even interbred, research finds

First sentence of article: Neanderthals may have lived side by side with early humans and possibly interbred with them, according to new research.

[Vattel]

6. I think it's pretty much certain that they interbred

based on DNA studies.

[kurt_cagle]

5. Actually, it may be that the Neanderthals are more likely Democrats

There's some very intriguing evidence that suggests that introversion as a personality trait (as well as Aspergers and possibly Gluten intolerance) may in fact be holdovers from a higher percentage of Neanderthal genes in the human genome than is found in "neuro-typical" genetic makeup. Introversion may also be found in the Denisovans, who were like the Neanderthal communal, cold-adapted hominids. Because these hominids were typically living in harsh climes, their total numbers were never very big - perhaps 5% and 2% of the Homo Sapiens populations respectively. As the glaciers retreated, these two sets of hominids interbred with Homo Sapiens, effectively breeding back into the large Homo gene pool.

Homo Neanderthalis was noted for short, stocky bodies and red hair that adapted to blonde farther north as an evolutionary adaption (blondeness by itself seems to be ready adaptation to the cold, but red hair is rare - only about 1-2% of the population worldwide have it, and even in Europe only 2-6% have it). It's possible that the Picts of Scotland (and through them the Scottish Celts), the Finno-Ugarinic Peoples (Finland and Hungary), the Etruscans, the Gypsy population, the Basque and the Japanese Ainu shared some Neanderthal history, while the Devonians may have contributed genetically to the Melanesians and Australian aboriginals.

Given that Neanderthals had larger brains and overall settled into more egalitarian societies (based admittedly on a very scant amount of evidence) it may very well be that the progressive impulse may be due to those self-same Neanderthals.

[d_r]

7. would you expect more red haired

liberals?

[kurt_cagle]

9. Possibly

I doubt that political affinity by itself could be clearly linked, only that characteristics like introversion, intuition and perceptiveness may have some basis in the Neanderthal genome. The Neanderthals themselves didn't interact strongly with Cro-Magnons (Homo Sapiens Sapiens), and there is some evidence that HS males and HN females probably produced sterile offspring (due to the fact that you see less evidence of Neanderthal genomic characteristics in mitochondrial DNA, which is due to a matrilinear descent. However, this may be due simply to sampling as well). However, introversion, et al. seem to be more typical of a progressive mindset than of a conservative one.

[jody]

8. Genetic research suggests Homo sapiens interbred with Homo neanderthalensis and Denisova hominin to

produce the Euroasians who settled Europe and Asia.

Will science eventually assign a name for the hybrid of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis?

[kurt_cagle]

11. Probably

Keep in mind that most of this has really only emerged with the advent of genetic testing and the sequencing of DNA. Getting Neanderthal DNA is difficult at best, and until you have a reasonably large sample of such DNA from different individuals, it is difficult to tell how typical any given DNA is in terms of species differentiation.

What does seem to be emerging is that Neanderthals probably did not appear all that much different from Homo Sapiens, to the extent that if you put an HN in a line-up, dressed in clothes of most eras, it would be hard to tell which was which. What's more, it is surprisingly difficult to determine whether a given DNA sample from a skull comes from a "pure" Neanderthal or a hybrid. As more contemporary genetic samples are analysed and more of the known Neanderthal and Denisovan remains are sequenced perhaps the answer to your question will become clearer.

[sarcasmo]

10. 80,000 years ago, that really messes up the good book.