A Neanderthal / Human Hybrid?

[loveoflife]

Genetic manipulation experiment?

Evolution theory takes another blow.


The Controversial Lapedo Child – A Neanderthal / Human Hybrid?

Buried for millennia in the rear of a rock-shelter in the Lapedo Valley 85 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal, archaeologists uncovered the bones of a four-year-old child, comprising the first complete Palaeolithic skeleton ever dug in Iberia. But the significance of the discovery was far greater than this because analysis of the bones revealed that the child had the chin and lower arms of a human, but the jaw and build of a Neanderthal, suggesting that he was a hybrid, the result of interbreeding between the two species. The finding casts doubt on the accepted theory that Neanderthals disappeared from existence approximately 30,000 years ago and were replaced by Cro-Magnons, the first early modern humans. Rather, it suggests that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans and became part of our family, a fact that would have dramatic implications for evolutionary theorists around the world.

[Becky]

Thanks for sharing. Surely the DNA of the remains would reveal the answer that the experts are fighting over...

[Cidersomerset]

Yeah I saw this article the other day about a jawbone found in Romania..........
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Modern humans and Neanderthals 'interbred in Europe'

22 June 2015
From the section Science & Environment


Pestera cu Oase jawbone

The Oase remains were discovered in 2002 by archaeologists working in south-west Romania
Modern humans and Neanderthals interbred in Europe, an analysis of 40,000-year-old DNA suggests.
The study suggests an early Homo sapiens settler in Europe harboured a Neanderthal ancestor just
a few generations back in his family line.Previous work has shown our ancestors had interbred with
Neanderthals 55,000 years ago, possibly in the Middle East.

The new results reveal there was additional mixing once modern humans pushed north into Europe.

An international team of researchers has published its analysis of the ancient European genome in
Nature journal.The group successfully extracted and sequenced genetic material from a jawbone
found in 2002 inside the cave system of Peștera cu Oase in south-west Romania.

The ancient man was found to be more closely related to Neanderthals than any other modern
human (Homo sapiens) who has previously been analysed.

Between 6% and 9% of the Oase individual's genome is from Neanderthals - an unprecedented
amount. By comparison, present-day Europeans have between 2% and 4%.

Smaller chunks

As DNA is passed on from generation to generation, segments are broken up and recombined,
so that genetic material inherited from any one individual becomes interspersed with that of
other ancestors. The scientists found segments of Neanderthal DNA in the fossil that were large
enough to indicate that the ancient man had a Neanderthal ancestor just four to six generations back.

"It's an incredibly unexpected thing," said Prof David Reich, a co-author of the paper from the
Harvard Medical School.

"In the last few years, we've documented interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans,
but we never thought we'd be so lucky to find someone so close to that event."

Co-author Prof Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig,
Germany, said: "It is such a lucky and unexpected thing to get DNA from a person who was so closely
related to a Neanderthal."

Previous analyses of ancient and modern human genomes (the DNA contained in the nucleus of our
cells that acts as the blueprint for building a person) have shown that modern humans probably
interbred with Neanderthals shortly after they migrated out of their African homeland.

This is because present-day people with roots outside sub-Saharan Africa carry a small percentage
of Neanderthal DNA. This suggest the mixing event must have occurred before people spread into
Asia, Europe and Oceania, diversifying into regional populations.

Pioneering population

The new findings agree well with our knowledge of the archaeology. Radiocarbon dating of remains
from sites across Europe suggests that modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed on the continent
for some 5,000 years.

However, the 40,000-year-old individual from Oase was probably not responsible for passing on
Neanderthal ancestry to present-day Europeans. The analysis shows the man was more closely
related to modern East Asians and Native Americans than to today's Europeans.

"This sample, despite being in Romania, doesn't yet look like Europeans today," said Prof Reich.

"It is evidence of an initial modern human occupation of Europe that didn't give rise to the later
population. There may have been a pioneering group of modern humans that got to Europe, but
was later replaced by other groups."

To analyse the ancient DNA in the Romanian bones, researchers had to sift out an overwhelming
amount of genetic material from other organisms. Most of that was from microbes that lived in
the soil where the bone was found. Of the fraction of a percent that was human DNA, most had
been introduced by people who handled the bone after its discovery.But co-author Qiaomei Fu,
a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Reich's group at Harvard, solved that problem by restricting her
analysis to DNA with a kind of damage that deteriorates the molecule over tens of thousands of years.

The study supports previous research by Prof Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St Louis
and colleagues showing that the jawbone and teeth possessed a mixture of modern and Neanderthal features.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33226416

[Tesseract]

I remember reading somewhere that red hair possibly stemmed from neanderthal genetics. I actually was under the impression that inter-breeding was not such a controversial idea, as perhaps indicated in Cider's post which mentions some neanderthal contribution to the modern genome. How does this strike a blow to evolution though?

[Ellisa]

It doesn't, if you recognise that evolution takes place new discoveries just add to the sum of the existing knowledge--- but it does strike a blow to theories of inter-breeding. It was thought, before DNA analysis was possible, that inter-breeding did not/could not occur. Now we know it did, and the evidence is in the genetic makeup of some modern humans. Also these discoveries have placed the Neanderthals existing more closely in time to modern humans than was thought before. Neanderthals only lived in Europe I believe. The remains of other types of hominids have (and still are) being found in Asia and elsewhere.

It's exciting to find out so much information on our ancestors as a result of DNA information I think. I'm sure there will be a lot more.

[ghostrider]

it was the scientist of Arus , 200 of them went out and captured wild earth females and mated with them ... The Old Lyrians came here and mixed with the hominoids ... the 10 percent brain use and short life span is from genetic manipulation by the ETs , the ORGINAL SIN ... the ET's say that's where the term sin or original sin comes from ... genetically altering nature/humans ...

[CrimSynn]

Well for me i find that the idea ETs have done O so much (and yet we see none of them?). Is a bit far fetched. Seems far likely we had evolved all on our own. The real question i wonder is how many different forms have we had... how many times have we come and gone? We don't need ETs to do anything we seem very able to prosper on our own. As we also seem very able to self destruct on our own as well. If the oldest humanoid they find is 3 mill years old then we have had 3 mill years to evolve.... look at the changes over last 1000 years? Now think what 3 mill could do!