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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the gift-that-keeps-on-giving dept.

Interbreeding with Neandertals[1] restored some genetic heirlooms that modern humans left behind in the ancient exodus from Africa, new research suggests.

Those heirlooms are versions of genes, or alleles, that were present in humans' and Neandertals' shared ancestors. Neandertals carried many of those old alleles, passing them along generation after generation, while developing their own versions of other genes. A small number of humans left Africa around 100,000 years ago and settled in Asia and Europe. These migrants "lost" the ancestral alleles.

But when the migrants or their descendants interbred with Neandertals, Eurasians reinherited the ancestral heirlooms along with Neandertal DNA, John "Tony" Capra reported October 20 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.

Unfortunately, a few of the genes identified are associated with disease.

[1] Though most often spelled Neanderthal, Neandertal is also a valid spelling.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:46AM (6 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:46AM (#586803) Journal

    Interbreeding with Neandertals[1] restored some genetic heirlooms that modern humans left

    In what genetic or speciated way are "Neandert[h]al humans" distinct from "modern humans"? If the two "interbred" then they were contemporaries, i.e. equally modern at the time, temporally speaking. Isn't that kind of like saying that modern humans interbreeding with Canadians restored certain genetic combinations?

    Aside from the fact that if two individuals can "breed" and produce fertile offspring, then they are by definition the same species and there's no "inter" to it.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:49AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:49AM (#586805)

    Old terminology, I guess, from back when neandertals were still thought to be a separate branch.

    We should probably be calling them northern humans and southern humans - or something like that - but how do we convince the established *-ologists of this?

    • (Score: 1) by MindEscapes on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:49PM (1 child)

      by MindEscapes (6751) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:49PM (#586882) Homepage

      Or we could try Neanderthals and Dwarf Neanderthals... ;)

      --
      Need a break? mindescapes.net may be for you!
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @03:48PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @03:48PM (#586899)

        And the current breed 'Homo Incompetus'

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by t-3 on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:13PM

    by t-3 (4907) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:13PM (#586857)

    So, dogs and wolves and all the other canis, same species? Cows and buffalo?

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @04:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @04:50PM (#586929)

    You're looking at it wrong. It's similar to when humans interbreed with the Amazing Talking African Ape. The resulting mongrel is still fertile and has human characteristics but is often overwhelmed with its simian features and an inability to stand on hind legs when the National Anthem is being played.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by bob_super on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:00PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:00PM (#586937)

    Next, you're gonna pretend that it's actually biologically acceptable for our pretty white daughters to breed with Chinks, Negroes and Rednecks?