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Tag Archives: Svante Pääbo
Neanderthal genes are everywhere
Neanderthals may have provided the genes favourable to cold resistance which were then selected forin Northern climes. They may also have thus provided the genes for skin and hair colour changes. But they also provided the genes which increased the susceptibility to some new diseases. Hybrid Neanderthal – modern human males may have been infertile and so the assimilation of Neanderthal genes may primarily have been through the hybrid females. All this probably between 80,000 years ago and 40,000 years ago – over about 2,000 generations. Continue reading
Posted in AMH, Ancestors, Denisovans, Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthalensis, Peopling the world
Tagged admixture, Denisovans, modern humans, Natural selection, Neanderthals, Svante Pääbo
3 Comments
Promiscuity in the Pleistocene
At some point there must have been children who were 50% Neanderthal and 50% AMH. And some who were 50% Neanderthal and 50% Denisovan. How did they survive? What kind of society existed in these ancient times that would permit such offspring not only to survive but also to mate and produce offspring in their turn? But however it happened, our ancestors in the pleistocene were a promiscuous lot. Continue reading
DNA from a 400,000 year old hominin from Spain decoded
The Max Planck team have now taken a giant leap backwards in time in extracting and analysing an almost complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a 400,000-year-hominin. The specimen is from Sima de los Huesos, a unique cave site in Northern Spain. The results show that it is related to the mitochondrial genome of Denisovans, extinct relatives of Neandertals in Asia. Continue reading
How Denis the hermit led to the Denisovans
The story of the the unravelling of the genes from a bone fragment of the finger of a little girl about 8 years old who “probably had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin” and who died in a cave in the Altay mountains of southern Siberia between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago. Continue reading
Ancient human dna suggests European /Asian split happened well before 40,000 years ago
DNA analysis of ancient human bones from Tianyuan cave suggests that the major migratory splits between Europeans and Asians happened considerably earlier than 40,000 years ago. Continue reading
Posted in Ancestors, Denisovans, Evolution, Homo Neanderthalensis, Homo Sapiens
Tagged China, DNA, European/Asian split, Svante Pääbo, Tianyuan Cave
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