First Love Child of Human, Neanderthal Found. The skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40,000-30,000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid, according to a paper in PLoS ONE. If further analysis proves the theory correct, the remains belonged to the first known such hybrid, providing direct evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred.
Prior genetic research determined the DNA of people with European and Asian ancestry is 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal. The present study focuses on the individual’s jaw, which was unearthed at a rock-shelter called Riparo di Mezzena in the Monti Lessini region of Italy. Both Neanderthals and modern humans inhabited Europe at the time.
PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors Condemi is the CNRS research director at the University of Ai-Marseille. She and her colleagues studied the remains via DNA analysis and 3D imaging. The genetic analysis shows that the individual’s mitochondrial DNA is Neanderthal. NEWS: Neanderthals Lacked Social Skills. Who Didn't Have Sex with Neanderthals? Very few populations of modern humans do NOT carry genetic traces of Neanderthals, say researchers. The only modern humans whose ancestors did not interbreed with Neanderthals are apparently sub-Saharan Africans, researchers say. New findings suggest modern North Africans carry genetic traces from Neanderthals, modern humanity's closest known extinct relatives.
Although modern humans are the only surviving members of the human lineage, others once roamed the Earth, including the Neanderthals. Genetic analysis of these extinct lineages' fossils has revealed they once interbred with our ancestors, with recent estimates suggesting that Neanderthal DNA made up 1 percent to 4 percent of modern Eurasian genomes. Although this sex apparently only rarely produced offspring, this mixing was enough to endow some people with the robust immune systems they enjoy today. PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors PHOTOS: Humans Vs. The scientists detailed their findings Oct. 17 in the journal PLoS ONE. Gene breakthrough shows Neanderthals in new light - opinion - 18 July 2013. WHEN Neanderthal bones were discovered in the 19th century, their robust build and heavy brows led palaeontologists to characterise them as brutish, and their name is still pejorative today.
Since then, we have found ample circumstantial evidence to suggest this stereotype is far from fair. Tools, jewellery and even cosmetics discovered among Neanderthal bones suggest that they were uncannily like us – a view strengthened when their genome was sequenced, showing a remarkable genetic overlap. Now the Neanderthal epigenome – the system of on/off switches that modify gene activity – has been deciphered (see "First look into workings of the Neanderthal brain"), allowing us to directly assess the mental life of our extinct cousins for the first time. This work is just beginning. Whether it clears the Neanderthal name remains to be seen. This article appeared in print under the headline "Extinct cousins out of rehab" New Scientist Not just a website! More From New Scientist More from the web.
Research Discovers Immunity Was Inherited From Neanderthal.