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Woolly mammoths and Neanderthals may have shared genetic traits
A new Tel Aviv University study suggests that the genetic profiles of two extinct mammals with African ancestry -- woolly mammoths, elephant-like animals that evolved in the arctic peninsula of Eurasia around 600,000 years ago, and Neanderthals, highly skilled early humans who evolved in Europe around 400,000 years ago -- shared molecular characteristics of adaptation to cold environments.
The research attributes the human-elephant relationship during the Pleistocene epoch to their mutual ecology and shared living environments, in addition to other possible interactions between the two species. The study was led by Prof. Ran Barkai and Meidad Kislev of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and published on April 8 in Human Biology.
"Neanderthals and mammoths lived together in Europe during the Ice Age. The evidence suggests that Neanderthals hunted and ate mammoths for tens of thousands of years and were actually physically dependent on calories extracted from mammoths for their successful adaptation," says Prof. Barkai. "Neanderthals depended on mammoths for their very existence. They say you are what you eat. This was especially true of Neanderthals; they ate mammoths but were apparently also genetically similar to mammoths."
Neanderthal and Woolly Mammoth Molecular Resemblance: Genetic Similarities May Underlie Cold Adaptation Suite (DOI: 10.13110/humanbiology.90.2.03) (DX)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday April 12 2019, @04:24AM (3 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @06:12AM
And you've been getting ignored because you are using the term wrong. Parallel evolution refers to similar physical characteristics developing in unrelated species due to environmental constraints.
Coincidentally developing the same mutant gene is a coincidence, not parallel evolution.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday April 12 2019, @01:33PM (1 child)
The two can be distinguished genetically. Convergent or parallel evolution modifies dissimilar gene sequences (defined by no or very distant common ancestors) to have similar recent changes functionally (as defined by sequence comparisons with genes under different environments). Contrarily, interbreeding means that sequences can be traced to recent common ancestors, which has been shown for the H.S./Neandertal pair. I am critical of these results too from the perspective of methodological difficulties (contamination issues) but it is certainly a possibility.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday April 13 2019, @12:38AM
Correct.
"which has been shown for the H.S./Neandertal pair."
Doh.
The MRC for sapiens and neanderthals is somewhere on the order of a million years, probably on the near side.
NO ONE disputes RECENT COMMON ANCESTOR.
That's the entire point, and the question. The evidence for neanderthal/sapiens crossbreeding, insofar as I have seen, boils down entirely to identical genes OUTSIDE of the Y and MT areas, which might mean nothing more than that two very closely related species wound up with the same genes in response to very similar environment (same place, overlapping timeframe.)
This happens between humans and elephants! It happens between canines and entirely unrelated marsupials evolved to fit the same niche! Of course it should be expected between such closely related hominids.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?