* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Neanderthals

Blobrana · L

The gene known as MC1R suggests the Neanderthals had fair skin and even freckles like redheads.
In a major breakthrough, Spanish scientists have discovered the blood group and two other genes of the early humans who lived 43,000 ago.
After analysing the fossil bones found in a cave in north-west Spain, the experts concluded they had human blood group "O" and were genetically more likely to be fair skinned, perhaps even with freckles, have red or ginger hair and could talk.

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Blobrana · L

Neanderthal Extinction by Competitive Exclusion
In a recently conducted study, a multidisciplinary French-American research team with expertise in archaeology, past climates and ecology reported that Neanderthal extinction was principally a result of competition with Cro-Magnon populations, rather than the consequences of climate change. The study was published in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.

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Blobrana · L

Late Neanderthals and modern human contact in southeastern Iberia
It is widely accepted that Upper Palaeolithic early modern humans spread westward across Europe about 42,000 years ago, displacing and absorbing Neanderthal populations in the process. However, Middle Palaeolithic assemblages persisted for another 8,000 years in Iberia, presumably made by Neanderthals. It has been unclear whether these late Middle Palaeolithic Iberian assemblages were made by Neanderthals, and what the nature of those humans might have been.
New research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is now shedding some light on what were probably the last Neanderthals.

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Blobrana · L

Why did Neanderthals have such big noses?
The Neanderthal's huge nose is a fluke of evolution, not some grand adaptation, research suggests.
The Neanderthal nose has been a matter of befuddlement for anthropologists, who point out that modern cold-adapted humans have narrow noses to moisten and warm air as it enters the lung, and reduce water and heat loss during exhalation.
Big noses tend to be found in people whose ancestors evolved in tropical climates, where a large nasal opening helps cool the body.

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Blobrana · L

Among their most recent findings: Neanderthals did little or no breeding with modern man. If that happened, one could expect Neanderthals to be genetically more similar to modern Europeans than to, say, Chinese.
The data were unambiguous: There was no such similarity.

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Blobrana · L

Anthropologists have discovered ancient seal bones showing signs of butchery, as well as some dolphin remains, in two caves in Gibraltar, Spain, which suggests that Neanderthals were intelligent and adaptable hunters, who used to feast on seals and dolphins.

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Blobrana · L

Meet Wilma: The face of Neanderthal woman revealed for the first time
Artists and scientists have created the first model of a Neanderthal based in part on ancient DNA evidence.
She has been put together using analysis of DNA from 43,000-year-old bones that had been cannibalised

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Blobrana · L

Neanderthals do not deserve their stupid reputation and used stone tools just as good as those invented by early modern humans, say scientists.
The new research challenges the assumption that the ancestors of people living today drove Neanderthals into extinction by outclassing them in tool technology.
Other reasons may now have to be found to explain why Neanderthals vanished from Europe 28,000 years ago, after living alongside modern humans for some 10,000 years. DNA evidence suggests that Neanderthals were a separate type of human distinct from our own species, Homo sapiens.

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Blobrana · L

Strands of DNA recovered from the fossilised leg bone of a Neanderthal have shed light on the fragility of the ancient population and pinpointed when they first split from what were to become modern humans. The 38,000-year-old bone was unearthed in a cave in Vindija in Croatia, and has since become part of a landmark project to read the entire genetic sequence of an ancient human ancestor, a feat scientists believe will help reveal how modern humans evolved into the world's dominant species.
Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, read the complete sequence of DNA held in tiny biological powerhouses called mitochondria, which provide energy for cells. The mitochondria are only passed down the female line, so can be used to trace the species back to an ancestral "Eve", the mother of all Neanderthals. The team analysed the DNA of 13 genes from the Neanderthal mitochondria and found they were distinctly different to modern humans, suggesting Neanderthals never, or rarely, interbred with early humans. The genetic material shows that a Neanderthal "Eve" lived around 660,000 years ago, when the species last shared a common ancestor with humans.

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