Uncle Og
There is an embarrassing uncle in every family. You know him, the one who tells the same joke about the chicken and the priest at every family gathering, or who turns up with a new impossibly young girlfriend to the wedding, or who wants to let everyone in on the ground floor of his great new business opportunity, or who eats potato salad without cutlery. He is responsible for all sorts of Neanderthal behaviour and is an embarrassment to the whole family. Imagine though, if your uncle were a real Neanderthal, wouldn’t that be mortifying! Well, here’s the bad news; go back a few hundred generations or so and your uncle probably was a Neanderthal.
Neanderthals evolved mainly in Europe in what is now France, Spain, Germany, and Russia. This occurred after their earlier ancestors left Africa between 800 000 and 400 000 years ago. They are thought to have lived on until around 30 000 years ago when they died out. Since early modern humans left Africa around 80 000 to 50 000 years ago, it is likely that humans and Neanderthals co-existed in Europe for some time. The burning question has been whether any cross-species hanky panky went on.
Around a decade ago the researchers of this new report had identified a piece of DNA known as a haplotype in the human X chromosome that seemed to have come from foreign origins. Then in 2010 the Neanderthal genome was sequenced. The researchers took their unkown haplotype and compared it to the Neanderthal genome.
They found that the Neanderthal haplotype was in fact present in the genome of all modern humans except for those from sub-Saharan Africa. Although no footage of actual mating sessions between Neanderthals and human ancestors is available to make it certain, even on youtube, it seems highly likely that it did take place. So all people outside of Africa have Neanderthals lingering somewhere in their family tree.
Imagine being an upwardly mobile Homo sapiens sapiens looking to climb the evolutionary tree and finding that young Clug or Clugette intends to marry a Neanderthal! It might shatter your social aspirations but you could console yourself with the thought that genetic variety is important for the long term survival of the species and any addition to the genome can be for the better, even if it is a Neanderthal addition.
Source: Molecular Biology and Evolution
Tags: Neanderthal, genetic, link, chromosome, halotype, DNA,Meanwhile if you visit Meijer Ad that contains mostly likewise discounts with Winn Dixie Ad you surely have a range like ALDI Ad.
