article on red-headed Neanderthals

[PDHOTLEN]

Here is something rather interesting, in context with autosomal DNA:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7062415.stm

[DNAgrl]

5 generations of redheads

That we know of through family stories, all the women have been redheads,myself included and the continuity has ended with my children, neither of whom are redheads. If the gene has been carried since the neandrathals, I can hope for redheaded grandchildren.

[fmoakes]

That we know of through family stories, all the women have been redheads,myself included and the continuity has ended with my children, neither of whom are redheads. If the gene has been carried since the neandrathals, I can hope for redheaded grandchildren.

I don't believe any scientist is seriously suggesting modern humans descended from Neandrathals.

[Johnserrat]

I don't believe any scientist is seriously suggesting modern humans descended from Neandrathals.

Actually, some scientists continue to assert this position:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061103083616.htm

Dr. Trinkhaus believes that Neanderthals were not replaced so much as integrated by modern humans. Some of the skulls he has studied do appear to show intermediate features.

However, based on molecular studies, the current wisdom in the scientific community is that the last common ancestor lived about 700,000 years ago and that mixing ceased about 400,000 years ago.

John

[derinos]

Neanderthals and Cro-magnons birthed "mules"?.

It is possible that scarce births to mixed couples did occur, but that the offspring could not procreate, as is the case with horse/donkey coupling.
The birthrate for unmixed Cro-magnon couples must also have overtaken the unmixed Neanderthal birthrate, likely from societal or autosomal elitism.
We have no way of comparing probable fertility rates between the two subspecies; but the present Cro-magnons certainly have more in common with rabbits than pandas!

[paitenceofjob]

It is possible that scarce births to mixed couples did occur, but that the offspring could not procreate, as is the case with horse/donkey coupling.
The birthrate for unmixed Cro-magnon couples must also have overtaken the unmixed Neanderthal birthrate, likely from societal or autosomal elitism.
We have no way of comparing probable fertility rates between the two subspecies; but the present Cro-magnons certainly have more in common with rabbits than pandas!

I think if Neanderthals and modern humans did produce a hybrid offspring, then there is a good chance they would have been fertile. Look at coyotes, dogs and wolves. They're able to produce fertile offspring. Humans and Neanderthals were much more close than horses were to donkeys.

I've heard people go so far as to suggest near total population replacement of the Paleolithic peoples of Europe. If modern humans in Upper Paleolithic Europe had a reproductive advantage over Neanderthals, and the later migrations of humans in the Mesolithic and Neolithic continued to have reproductive advantages, then it's possible that Neanderthal mtdna and y-dna lines have gone extinct. That does not mean that modern human-Neanderthal hybrids never existed or reprouced themselves. Some small scattered fragments of Neanderthal autosomal dna may still exist in living people today.

[PDHOTLEN]

BBC article on human evolution

Here's an article for your entertainment:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7313005.stm

U5b2 & R1a1

[purple flowers]

I think that is a goat tooth!