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.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:49AM (2 children)
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)
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
And the current breed 'Homo Incompetus'