According to my local newspaper, scientists have managed to extract
some DNA from Neandertal bone and have proved what some (if not most)
anthropologists were already saying, namely that Neandertals were not
a near relative of Homo sapiens.
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LOS ANGELES
Neanderthals no relation: study
THE stocky big-game hunters known as Neanderthals who lived during
the last Ice Age did not evolve into modern humans, according to new
research.
Nor did the two groups intermarry and have surviving children - even
though they apparently roamed prehistoric Europe and Asia together for
thousands of years.
In a landmark study, researchers in the United States and Germany said
they succeeded for the first time in extracting, reproducing and analysing
DNA from a pulverised piece of 100 000 year old Neanderthal bone.
By comparing those ancient genes with material from hundreds of people
around the world today, they discovered that Neanderthals did not
contribute any DNA to modern humanity.
This strongly suggests that the species was an evolutionary, dead-end,
edged out-or killed by the forebears of contemporary Homo Sapiens.
University of Munich genetics expert Svante Paabo, who led the six-year
effort, said: "This is the first genetic information we have from
Neanderthals and it gives no indication that any mixing between the two
groups would have taken place.
The fate of these primitive people-who buried their dead with flowers
and may have been the first to feel- religious stirrings-is one of the most
hotly disputed questions in the study of human beginnings.
"This is a landmark discovery, which is arguably the greatest
achievement so far in the field of ancient DNA research," said Tomas
Lindahl, a genetics expert at Britain's Imperial Cancer Research Fund.
("Neanderthals no relation: study", The West Australian, Saturday July
12, 1997, p3)
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If this is true (no scientific article was cited), it will be a boost
to the Out-of-Africa replacement hypothesis and blow to the multi-
regional hypothesis.
It will be interesting to see how Glenn handles it. While not an
out-and-out multi-regionalist, he does hold some form of regional
continuity. In any event, if this article is accurate, Glenn's
"Neandertal was human" apologetic will be irrelevant from the viewpoint
of Homo sapiens' origins.
Finally, it will help underscore the uniqueness of modern man, which is
of course an general expectation (if not a prediction) of creationism.
God bless.
Steve
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| Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net |
| 3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Steve.Jones@health.wa.gov.au |
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| Perth, West Australia v my opinions, not my employer's) |
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