Humans Interbred with Neanderthals

Looks like some of our ancestors got up close and personal with the Neanderthals:

Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.

The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.

The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome – the “instruction manual” describing how these ancient humans were put together.

Between 1% and 4% of the Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals.

But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.

My new theory is that fundamentalists inherit more of the Neanderthal genome than others…

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30 Responses to Humans Interbred with Neanderthals

  1. TGD says:

    Danial said, “My new theory is that fundamentalists inherit more of the Neanderthal genome than others…”

    Why do you insult the Neanderthals?

  2. nomad says:

    I’ve always felt that the story of Essau was about weeded out the Neanderthal progeny. That’s why Joseph, his mother and Isaac conspired to rob Essau of his heritage.

  3. steve says:

    I heard that there is a cave in downtown Dallas where, millions of years ago, Neanderthals wrote down a series of inscription which formed the basis of the original bible! Of course, that was before god turned them all into Native American Indians – and modern Texas christians tried to rewrite history.

  4. Wendy says:

    Not my mom. She comes from one of the 10 tribes of Israel.

    I know, I laughed when she told me too.

  5. Jordan says:

    I know it’s shallow and mean, but I’d believe it judging from some of the protruding brows I’ve seen.

  6. Olaf says:

    I am confused. How can we be the image of god and have Neanderthal DNA?

  7. Paul says:

    And the interbreeding happened after, or right before the “pioneering group” left Africa, therefore Whites are less human than blacks. This would be funny if the irony wasn’t so historically tragic…

  8. LKL says:

    Unfortunately, there was an article at the Huffington Post that claimed that “we” (’cause I guess no black people read the Huffpo) should be thankful for the leftover Neanderthal genes, because they must be responsible for basically every human advancement that has ever occurred, because ‘humans didn’t do anything noteworthy for the first several thousand years of existence.’ The author seemed totally oblivious to the historical ignorance and blatant racism of that statement.

  9. Owl700 says:

    OH, silly scientists! Have you not seen this poster from the creation museum? It clearly shows Neanderthals called Noah “grandpa”.
    http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/08/more_stuff_we_missed_at_the_cr.php
    The bibull tells me so…

  10. NeanderthalApologist says:

    You are really insulting the Neanderthals. If the whole Brain mass to Body mass ratio is to be trusted, Neanderthals were more intelligent than us. They had both a larger brain, and a higher Brain:Body ratio.

    • Owl700 says:

      I recently saw an excellent documentary on the History channel in the “Ancient Weather” series, and it discussed how climate change in Europe was one of the things that likely lead to their demise. There was also an interesting discussion about how our ancestors would cooperate more and it helped our survival.

  11. LRA says:

    Wait, wait, wait…. Daniel!!! Do I detect a…. penis… in that picture? Shame on you, pornographer!!!!

    :P

  12. Tee says:

    So easy even a caveman can do it… (someone had to say it!)

  13. nazani14 says:

    ahem.
    Robert Pattinson’s eyebrows.

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