Neanderthal DNA indicates red hair & pale skin, now what?

Question

Having long held that Neanderthal was pale skinned, I feel vindicated.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1147417

While this gene was not exactally the same as those found in Europeans (According to out of Africa supporters) it is a significant finding in my estimation. What do you think?

Answer 1

I have often believed myself that Neanderthals were part of my ancestry. (I am of Celtic and Scandinavian ancestry). If you look at Neanderthals versus ancient Celts and Scandinavians you notice that the only differences are that Celts and Scandinavians didn't have a wide nose like the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals are known to have had stocky builds reddish and blonde hair and green and blue eyes which are characteristics only found in European ancestry.

Answer 2

Given the extremely low variation in human DNA, it is unlikely that neanderthals contributed at all to modern populations.

Answer 3

I believe that one of the types of melanin is reddish when it isn't overly concentrated.  It seems likely that hominids in northern climates would reduce melanin and end up with red hair among other colors.  The pale skin makes sense because of the need to get the amount of vitamin  D at the ideal level in an environment with less sunshine. Neanderthals were apparently the same species as humans a few hundred thousand years ago.  The species that existed in the north evolved into Neanderthal and most of that species lived in Africa and evolved down a slightly different line.  We shared the same genetics and genes flowed both directions but was at least sometimes bottlenecked by the Saharra.  After a few hundred thousand years of relative isolation with only a small amount of migration through the bottleneck, eventually new species arose.  It doesn't really answer the question if they were genetically compatible or when/if they became separate species.  If the gene is similar it could have mutated in modern humans.  If they are totally different, it doesn't add any weight to us having any recent genetic contributions from Neanderthals.  It is interesting that Neanderthals had red hair just like on the Quest for Fire.

Answer 4

It doesn't matter.

Answer 5

Yes but Neanderthal means "new man" He is an evolutionary development or a new seed because it has already been very well established the first humans were black and from central africa. (See Lucy) Mitochrondrial DNA already traces all human life on the planet to one black woman who has been called "Eve" in scientific circles.

The three races or types of human are Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Ethiopian.

The blond gene showed up on the scene only very, very recently in anthropological terms, about 10,000 years ago.

Just because you don't believe something, doesn't mean it isn't true.

Answer 6

Well here's a news brief for you, there is no complete Neanderthal D.N.A. or, do you have a secret the anthropologists don't ? Red hair and pale skin, really.

Answer 7

EDIT: Okay, I've finally edited my non-answer:

Neanderthal man, as the humanoid hominid **fully adapted in Europe**, shouldn't evoke surprise in the even they share some commonalities with modern Europeans, newer arrivals to Europe.

PIC:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44...

Neanderthals were the *ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF EUROPE* and have inhabited that region for well over 100,000 years before Homo Sapiens (modern humans) even left Africa!

Yes, I read of the study saying they have evidence they may have had red hair.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/natur...

As far as the skin color goes, though, they may well have been green.

Now.

Europeans have lighter skin (and hair) than any other group on earth.

Conversely, equatorial Native Americans are not even remotely as dark as other groups at the same latitude. The traditional explanation was that Europeans had had more time to adapt. The traditional explanation no longer works…

http://biology.plosjournals.org/archive/...

http://www.backintyme.com/essay021215_fi...

The most eye-catching feature on the above maps is that the lightest complexion on earth is native only to the region within 600 miles of the Baltic and North seas. The feature is unique on the globe.

Well, scientists have found that melanin levels do not correlate with a specific gene. Several independant genes must in concert to produce the deepest complexion.

Many things can go wrong and, when they do, the result is a lighter complexion. For instance, deleterious mutations at any/a number of loci (TYR” at 11q14-21, “P” at 15q11.2-12, “MC1R” at 16q24.3, etc [Sturm, Box, and Ramsay 1998]) result in various forms of albinism, whether the patient’s heritage is dark or pale. In other words, there are many random ways “accidentally” to evolve a light complexion. But no genetic defect can make the child of light-skinned parents come out dark.

Why have Europeans lightened to such a digree, while people like the Inuit - the most cold-adapted on Earth - retained melanin levels they have?

Melanin is a genetic adaptation to light, not heat. UV rays. Polar bears are black skinned under their translucent (reflective) fur, so as to *ABSORB HEAT*.

Also, the Inuit get alot of Vitamin D in their diet, where Europeans didn't, and so didn't need melanin blocking the UV rays that did reach Europe, so as to synthesize more light for Vitamin D.

Blonde/light hair is thought to be a side-affect of the extreme albanism that's happenend in Europe, though darker peoples (pacific Islanders) have been found to have high levels of blondism as well, for no apparent reason.

PICS:

http://wysinger.homestead.com/mat.jpg

http://wysinger.homestead.com/004_2_1b.j...

http://wysinger.homestead.com/24nov-08-w...

http://wysinger.homestead.com/sep30_kano...

Answer 8

Skin and hair color is a genetic adaption, so it neither proves or disproves in itself  the "african origination" of humanity.

Only the fossil record and DNA does that, both of which have placed the original Eve somewhere in Africa.

As for it's significance, I find it interesting but hardly significant. I learned in my Theatre makeup classes in college that all human skin color is merely a lighter or darker shade of orange.

Answer 9

Sirius, leave that ganja weed alone.

Answer 10

You might research the Neanderthal  Autism link.

There's several researchers that point to Neanderthal genes as a cause of Autism in today's populations

http://www.rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm

Answer 11

I bet all those red haired pale Neanderthals were gutted when they realised they were ginger.  I believe that this is why they wore such thick furs in summer, to stop them sun-burning and turning into Neader-lobsters.  They were also the earliest humans to wear glasses too.

Answer 12

Wait.  Okay, I can't read the article and don't want to pay $10 to, but the description says that it looks like Neanderthal skin tones varied, possibly as much as with us.  It does mention the red hair and pale skin, but I don't get the discrepancy between what you say and what the article stub says.  Is this variation the only gene that they've found?  Are they just assuming that potential variety, or what?  I wouldn't really be surprised if they did vary quite a bit.  Human skin tone changes a lot as you move over what used to be Neanderthal territory, and presumably what was advantageous to us would've been advantageous to them.

Answer 13

Genes are not that simple.  The study is suggestive rather than conclusive.  In white people these genes code for this phenotype, but who's to say how related white people really are to homo sapiens neanderthalensis, its a matter of great academic debate.  Therefore, who's to say that these genes in neanderthals really coded for red hair and pale skin?

To give the study the benefit of the doubt in this case, tracing 'Celtic' ancestry back 30,000 years is a totally impossible thing given the amount of population movement and genetic mixing in the intervening years.  It is meaningless.  We act and possess cultural traits of indentity and behaviour almost entirely by our socialisation, not by biological heredity.  To claim inheritance of any cultural significance from a species 25,000 years+ extinct is totally spurious.

So I say now....nothing.

Answer 14

It is interesting that they concluded that it evolved independently.  That seems to quash the conclusions that my red haired Irish ancestors may have had some Neanderthal contribution based on some theories.  Since they were adapted to a cold northern environment similar presumably to some of our caucasion ancestors, it seems reasonable that Neanderthal were likely light skinned for the same  reasons caucasions developed light skin (i.e  to retain vitamin D).

Answer 15

Esau, one of the twins, of Isaac had red hair and beard with thick red hair covering his arms. I have always thought that there had to be a different answer, I don't think we all came from Africa but I am keeping an open mind for the next discovery.

Answer 16

Even before this news was released, I always thought they'd have been pale and European looking. I've always found the dark skinned reconstructions ludicrous, and slightly racist.

Of course it's significant. Also, I've seen at least four different shades of auburn to ginger hair. I carry one. How sure are they that we don't carry the Neanderthal version? So far only one ginger gene has been identified in Europeans. I doubt that there's been any kind of large scale screening of gingers to establish if they all have identical genes.

Does no-one else (other than Ed) find it significant that the map of the widely varied European anomalous colouring exactly overlays the map of the Neanderthal range?

Mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome prove nothing, as they are functional genes subject to natural selection, and can eliminate older versions. There are versions of the X chromosome that don't have an ancestry traceable to Africa, so they should see if they can get a sample from one of the old Neanderthal bones to compare for that. One modern human fossil was not a descendant of mitochondrial EVE. Even a tiny percentage increase in the number of young surviving, over tens of millenia will replace an old version of a gene

I'm not even beginning to get into the other physical arguments for admixture. There are so many we'd be here all day.

Answer 17

Neanderthals and Cromagons were White People!

Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens were Black people

the first man on earth was a black being he was created by intelligent benevolent beings his name was so called Adam he was a Giant.

He was tall but not a biblical size of the Giants Satan programmed meaning 30 ft.

We came from separate people.

But Cromagons and Homo Sapiens emerged a little . But you can still see the difference in bone structures.