Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Science on the march

German scientists claim to have mapped the Neanderthal genome.

Here is an artist's rendition of a typical Neanderthal, based on the latest knowledge.


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Hmmm. Just barely humanoid.

9 comments:

rinardman said...

I heard they're looking for a female volunteer, to give birth to a Neanderthal baby.

Looking at that artist's rendition....why?

Spiny Norman said...

Oh come on now, rinardman, Plugs ain't that ugly. Dumb as a stump, yes, but not ugly.

RebeccaH said...

I'm pretty sure Neanderthals had more hair. And it was actually theirs.

mojo said...

Wiping out the Neanderthals: origin of the "Cain and Abel" myth?

Anonymous said...

Deborah said..."Plugs" isn't the only one. There's a few in the NBA.

How many millions were spent to get to this point? And what exactly do they hope to reveal about modern humans? Seems like a waste of time to me.

Spiny Norman said...

Well, for one thing, Anon, they learned that there appears to be no trace of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans, which seems to put the "interbreeding" theory of Neanderthal extinction to rest. Kinda of big deal in scientific circles.

SwampWoman said...

Oh, please. There is no way that Neaderthals were that stupid. There's no evidence that they even HAD democrats.

mojo said...

"No trace" of H.N. DNA in modern humans.

Other than the 99.9% we had in common, I assume.

Spiny Norman said...

Exactly. Like the 98+% of DNA we share with chimpanzees: we're closely related, but we have no direct Neanderthal ancestors, just a common ancestor. It seems most likely our closest cousins were driven to extinction, if not actually exterminated by our Cro-Magnon predecessors.