Red Headed Neanderthal Step Child

Thu Oct 25, 4:42 PM ET



CHICAGO (AFP) - Some of our cave-dwelling Neanderthal relatives probably had red hair and fair complexions, much like modern-day humans of Celtic origin, according to a study released Thursday.

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The finding comes from the first such analysis of DNA evidence taken from Neanderthal fossils recovered from El Sidron in northern Spain and Monti Lessini, Italy.

An analysis of the DNA revealed the ancient hominids carried a mutation in the MC1R gene that codes for a protein involved in the production of melanin -- a substance that gives skin its color and also protects it against ultraviolet light.

In modern humans, primarily of European descent, mutations in the MC1R gene are thought to be responsible for red hair and pale skin by dampening the activity of the protein.

The mutation observed in the Neanderthal genes was different from the one documented in humans, but when scientists inserted the Neanderthal gene into cells in a test tube, it seemed to have the same effect on melatonin production as the modern human genes, according to the study published in Science.

The genetic analysis doesn't seal the deal, but since the fossil record of Neanderthals does not include any samples of skin or hair, it is the best guide available, said Michael Hofreiter, a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Germany.

Hofreiter said the number of red-headed Neanderthals was probably pretty small, possibly just one percent of the population and might have popped up in any part of Europe or Asia that the ancient hominids had settled.

The news did not come as a surprise to one leading scholar of Neanderthal evolution and biology.

"The stereotype of primitive peoples is that they are dark skinned, but some paleontologists have been speculating for 20 years that some Neanderthals must have been pale skinned because they lived in northern Europe," said Erik Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

"Light skin is adaptive at higher altitudes because it allows more UVB radiation to penetrate the skin and that promotes Vitamin D synthesis."

Neanderthals, whose ancestors diverged from that of modern humans about 300,000 years ago, colonized Europe and parts of Asia, dominating Europe until about 30,000 years ago.

The study suggests that the genes that confer pale skin and red hair evolved separately in humans and our closest extinct relatives.


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Red Headed Neanderthal Step Child

That Far Ranging Neanderthal Oni

By Marlowe Hood AFP - Sunday, September 30 06:19 pm



PARIS (AFP) - European Neanderthals, modern man's ill-fated cousins who died out mysteriously some 28,000 years ago, migrated much further east than previously thought, according to a study released Sunday.


Remains from the slope-browed hominid have previously been found over an area stretching from Spain to Uzbekistan, but the new study extends the eastern boundary of their wanderings another 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) deep into southern Siberia, just above the western tip of what is today China.


The fossils underpinning the study are not new, but the techniques used to analyse them are.


Geneticist Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues compared mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from bones found from two sites -- one in Teshik Tash, Uzbekistan and the other from the Altai Mountains in Siberia -- with those of specimens from different European sites.


Scientists looking at the morphology of the remains from the central Asian sites have long disagreed as to whether they came from Neanderthals or Homo sapiens sapiens, the species name for modern man.


Paabo's results settle the debate.


The study, published in the British journal Nature, confirms that the adult fossils -- about 40,000 years old -- from Okladnikov Cave in Siberia genetically match the European Neanderthal.


"The fact that no deep mtDNA divergence is seen ... shows that they were not separated for a long time," supporting a theory that Neanderthals colonised most of the Russian plains during a warming period some 125,000 years ago, the researchers conclude.


Every human cell contains thousands of mitochondria, tiny structures that convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use. Although most DNA is packaged in chromosomes within the nucleus, mitochondria also have a small amount of their own.


Mitochondrial DNA is more abundant than nuclear DNA, and is thus more likely to be recovered.


In addition, mtDNA is transmitted only from the mother so that changes from generation to generation result from mutation alone rather than recombination of the mother and father's DNA.


The presence of Neanderthals in Siberia "raises the possibility that they man have been present even farther to the east, in Mongolia and China," the study notes.


Smaller and squatter than modern man, Neanderthals lived in parts of what are today Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for around 170,000 years.


Sometime between 28,000 and 30,000 years ago, these poorly understood hominids disappeared, a vanishing act that has sparked fierce debate among palaeontologists.


Some say that the Neanderthals were wiped out by a sudden cold snap. More recent research, however, points to another culprit: us.


Even here, there are broadly two lines of thought. One is that Neanderthals, vying for food and habitat, were slaughtered by modern humans armed with superior stone tools and weapons.


Another is that the two species intermingled and interbred, with the weaker, less numerous Neanderthals simply petering out as a distinct group.
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That Far Ranging Neanderthal Oni