Baby Face
Here are three more articles related to recent posts...
Neandertal Baby Brains - (good pic of comparative skulls). -
Neanderthals and modern humans are thought to have co-existed for thousands of years and interbred, meaning Europeans now have roughly two per cent Neanderthal DNA.
These 'legacy' genes have been linked to an increased risk from cancer and diabetes by new studies looking at our evolutionary history.
However, some genes we inherited could have also improved our immunity to other diseases.
Scientists have found that part of our HLA system, which helps white blood cells to identify and destroy foreign material in the body, could have come from Neanderthals.
Other researchers have suggested that humans outside Africa are more vulnerable to Type 2 Diabetes because they interbred with Neanderthals.
Researchers from Oxford and Plymouth universities have also found that genes thought to be risk factors in cancer were present in the Neanderthal genome.
A gene that can cause diabetes in Latin Americans is also thought to have come from Neanderthals, long before their ancestors colonised the New World.
Another recent genetic study by scientists at the University at Buffalo has suggested that Neanderthals may have suffered from psoriasis and Crohn's disease, a condition that affects the digestive system.
Sound waves create tiny black hole - Imagine what other types of waves can do!
The Fountain Of Youth - TED
I will just mention a few things about Neandertal. First, my guess is that N. was hairier than he is portrayed. And, N. probably looked more stylish than the guy in the picture, because they probably had combs, barbers, and possibly even plastic surgeons. Next, the dates on these things are always blurry, confused, and likely to be corrected later. Thus, Sapiens and Neandertal probably mated at times OTHER than around 50,000 years ago. I believe we are said to have branched off from them about 200,000 years ago - yet there may have been a little whoopy going on around 100,000 years ago. This means that we must keep our minds open to the possibility that there may have been some mating going on before N. lost his Y chromosome. Or, we might hold out the possibility that the divergence occurred precisely when the Y. chromosome was lost. I believe the final age of intercourse may have been as late as 30,000 - or even later, especially since we were already passing N. genes after that - so it is a continuum in the latter sense. Finally, one reason why N. is said to have had compassion is that there is evidence that N. raised a disabled child until the child died at age 3. The child had microcephaly. This is curious, in light of recent news re: Zika. Of course, various things can cause microcephaly. But I wonder about the possibility of some connection between Zika and Neandertal. Perhaps, e.g., Europeans are either more, or less, susceptible to it today, because of some inheritted Neandertal gene. This journal is where hypotheses come to die - while many more pile on.
Oh - It is said that our speech did not begin until 50,000 years ago, which I think is total nonsense. And, it has been said that Neandertals could not speak, or at least could not speak well (because of their structure). However, the article linked above reveals that "speech genes" were carried by Neandertal. I assume they were not inheritted from us, thus taking the beginning of speech back to at least around 200,000 years ago.
Neandertal Baby Brains - (good pic of comparative skulls). -
Neanderthals and modern humans are thought to have co-existed for thousands of years and interbred, meaning Europeans now have roughly two per cent Neanderthal DNA.
These 'legacy' genes have been linked to an increased risk from cancer and diabetes by new studies looking at our evolutionary history.
However, some genes we inherited could have also improved our immunity to other diseases.
Scientists have found that part of our HLA system, which helps white blood cells to identify and destroy foreign material in the body, could have come from Neanderthals.
Other researchers have suggested that humans outside Africa are more vulnerable to Type 2 Diabetes because they interbred with Neanderthals.
Researchers from Oxford and Plymouth universities have also found that genes thought to be risk factors in cancer were present in the Neanderthal genome.
A gene that can cause diabetes in Latin Americans is also thought to have come from Neanderthals, long before their ancestors colonised the New World.
Another recent genetic study by scientists at the University at Buffalo has suggested that Neanderthals may have suffered from psoriasis and Crohn's disease, a condition that affects the digestive system.
Sound waves create tiny black hole - Imagine what other types of waves can do!
The Fountain Of Youth - TED
I will just mention a few things about Neandertal. First, my guess is that N. was hairier than he is portrayed. And, N. probably looked more stylish than the guy in the picture, because they probably had combs, barbers, and possibly even plastic surgeons. Next, the dates on these things are always blurry, confused, and likely to be corrected later. Thus, Sapiens and Neandertal probably mated at times OTHER than around 50,000 years ago. I believe we are said to have branched off from them about 200,000 years ago - yet there may have been a little whoopy going on around 100,000 years ago. This means that we must keep our minds open to the possibility that there may have been some mating going on before N. lost his Y chromosome. Or, we might hold out the possibility that the divergence occurred precisely when the Y. chromosome was lost. I believe the final age of intercourse may have been as late as 30,000 - or even later, especially since we were already passing N. genes after that - so it is a continuum in the latter sense. Finally, one reason why N. is said to have had compassion is that there is evidence that N. raised a disabled child until the child died at age 3. The child had microcephaly. This is curious, in light of recent news re: Zika. Of course, various things can cause microcephaly. But I wonder about the possibility of some connection between Zika and Neandertal. Perhaps, e.g., Europeans are either more, or less, susceptible to it today, because of some inheritted Neandertal gene. This journal is where hypotheses come to die - while many more pile on.
Oh - It is said that our speech did not begin until 50,000 years ago, which I think is total nonsense. And, it has been said that Neandertals could not speak, or at least could not speak well (because of their structure). However, the article linked above reveals that "speech genes" were carried by Neandertal. I assume they were not inheritted from us, thus taking the beginning of speech back to at least around 200,000 years ago.