On Tue, 28 Mar 2000 20:20:38 -0000 "glenn morton" <mortongr@flash.net>
writes:
> There is a new study out on Neanderthal DNA. This one is from Russia.
> Apparently the DNA was quite similar to the mtDNA isolated from the
> Feldhofer specimen in 1997.(There is a bit of reading between the
> lines of
> the report. Such similarity would say that there were probably very
> few
> Neanderthals. The DNA is also said to be different from modern
> humans and
> thus, they draw the conclusion that Neanderthals didn't interbreed
> with
> modern humans. If there are few of them, then they might have
> interbred but
> due to swamping, their genes didn't survive til today.
I can't comment on the report, but the article on genetics in _Science_,
p. 1781, reminded me of the accepted 150-200kya African origin of _Homo
sapiens_ and Glenn's' earlier report on Neanderthal hybrids. While
swamping of the Neanderthal contribution is possible, it is also possible
that the reason Neanderthal characteristics are not found in the modern
population is that they were a different species, sufficiently similar to
allow hybridization, but with sterile progeny. The classic example of
this is found in the Equidae, where _Equus caballus_ and _E. asinus_
produce mules and hinnies, reproductive dead ends. I have read that
horses, donkeys, onagers and zebras in any combination produce hybrids.
But I have not found specific data on the fertility of the offspring.
None of this answers the question of the extermination of Neanderthals,
whether it was ecological, where they were outcompeted or overheated by
climatic changes, or fratricidal, where they were deliberately killed. I
exclude their elimination by novel diseases, for that seems more likely
to decimate than to exterminate a population. I note the Black Death in
Europe and the introduction of measles and small pox into the Americas as
evidence.
Dave
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Apr 03 2000 - 13:48:27 EDT