Archaeologica.org

Cognito wrote:W/A will tell you that "runners" were the mail service in the Americas before the introduction of the horse.

Beagle wrote:Hello Zale and welcome to a fellow Hawks fan. I think Hawks has a great weblog, and I've been reading him for nearly a couple of years now.

It's fun to talk about our favorite Neandertal theory, but as Hawks says -"bring on the alleles". I think we may have to wait for genetics. The whole science is still in it's infancy.

There is every kind of disagreement about HNS everywhere you look. And still, no definitive study.

Thanks Zale.

About the "bring on the alleles" comment: Well, he did go recently to Krapina, Croatia, and that site did yield Neandertal DNA. Based on the dropped hints, and the slant of his opinions, I suspect there will be a huge paper out on this matter within half a year, i.e. DNA proof that humans (caucasians) are partly Neandertal.

Neanderthals may have given the modern humans who replaced them a priceless gift -- a gene that helped them develop superior brains, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

"The D alleles may not even change brain size; they may only make the brain a bit more efficient if it indeed affects brain function," Lahn said.

I seem to recall that there were genetic hints that the Asians have genes that are older than homo sapies (java man or whatever). This hypothesis will definitely then become scrutinized in more detail.

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November 9, 2006
Neanderthals in Gene Pool, Study Suggests
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Scientists have found new genetic evidence that they say may answer the longstanding question of whether modern humans and Neanderthals interbred when they co-existed thousands of years ago. The answer is: probably yes, though not often.

In research being published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists reported that matings between Neanderthals and modern humans presumably accounted for the presence of a variant of the gene that regulates brain size.

Bruce T. Lahn of the University of Chicago, the report’s senior author, said the findings demonstrated that such interbreeding with relative species, those on the brink of extinction, contributed to the evolutionary success of modern humans.

Other researchers in evolutionary biology said the new study offered strong support for the long-disputed idea that archaic species like Neanderthals contributed to the modern human gene pool.

Two other reports of DNA studies of possible mixing of human and related genes are expected to be published in the next few weeks.

Both genetic and fossil studies show that anatomically modern humans emerged 200,000 years ago in Africa and migrated into Europe 40,000 years ago. In about 10,000 years, Europe’s longtime inhabitants, Neanderthals, became extinct. The mainstream interpretation is that modern humans somehow replaced them without interbreeding.

In previous research, Dr. Lahn and associates discovered that a gene for brain size called microcephalin underwent a significant change 37,000 years ago. Its modified variant, or allele, appeared to confer a fitness advantage on those who possessed it. It is now present in about 70 percent of the world’s population.

The new research focused on the two classes of alleles of the brain gene. One appeared to have emerged 1.1 million years ago in an archaic Homo lineage that led to Neanderthals and was separate from the immediate predecessors of modern humans. The 37,000-year date for the other variant immediately suggested a connection with Neanderthals.

Dr. Lahn said it did not necessarily show that interbreeding was widespread. It could have been a rare, perhaps even single, event.