Translated material
Pale -faced from a dead end branch
The study of the 50-thousandth remains of the Neanderthals from which DNA managed to extract, confirmed the long-standing assumptions of anthropologists: at least some of the ancient hominids, like people, had a pale skin color and a red hair color. It is interesting that some time ago hypotheses about kinship with Neanderthals of red-haired Scots and Irish Neanderthals were popular.
The results of the new study of European and American geneticists are published this week in the journal Science . They are based on the analysis of one specific gene designated as MC1R (Melanocortin Type 1 - Melanocortin -1), which is responsible for the production of sunscreens - melanin. Thanks to the mutation of the same Homo sapiens gene, they were able to better adapt to life in high latitudes (such a mutation contributed to a more effective synthesis of vitamin D with a lack of sunlight).
It must be said that studies of Neanderthal DNA have always encountered the problem of pollution of fossil samples of modern human DNA in field and laboratory conditions. However, Professor Carles Lalueza-Fox ( Carles Lalueza-Fox from the Spanish University of Barcelogia Animal, Universitt de Barcelona ) and his colleagues managed to get around all the difficulties and found out that the MC1R gene, extracted from two European protesters Neanderthals (Monti Lessini in Italy and El Sidrón in Spain), contains a variation of a pair of nitrogenous bases (nucleotides), which is characteristic of Neanderthals and is not found in people - it does not contain MC1R -sequence of 2,800 people, and there are no hundreds of samples studied additionally - the total number of compared Samples reached 3.7 thousand, which means that this is at least an extremely rare variation. This analysis was also confirmed by two other laboratories using fresh samples.
“Apparently, we found the option that is not described for modern people,” says another co -author of the article by Michael Hofreiter from the German Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology of the Max -In -In -In -In -In -Inpoitt Für Evolution Anthropologie - MPI EVA ) In Leipzig - this can hardly be pollution from human DNA. "
“This is the first functional difference in the genomes of Neanderthals and modern people,” Lalueza -Fox concludes. The absence of a specific mc1R-sequence for sapiens for Neanderthals makes us suggest that “pale-faced” both among Homo Neanderthalensis and among Homo sapiens appeared independent, and not due to interspecific crossing. However, new data still do not finally reject such an opportunity.
The connection between the MC1R genus and the color of the hair or wool of mammals has also been established for a long time. If the activity of this gene is reduced, then the color is lighter. The hair of people and the wool of the cows in this case becomes red, in mice, horses and dogs - either red or bright. Interestingly, in 2006, researchers from the group headed by Holger Römpler from the Leipzig University of Evolutionary Anthropology named after Max Planck ( Universität Leipzig , who took part in the current studies, extracted DNA from the remains of the mammoth, who lived in Siberia 43 thousand years ago, And they found that among the mammoths there were actually “white crows” - that is, these animals had two different options for the genetic code - from two MC1R alleles, one encoded normally functioning protein, and the other - protein with significantly reduced activity, which determined the light color of the wool of these extinct animals. The coloring of mammoth skins could be very diverse - from black to the brightest (the so -called color polymorphism). Well, people and Neanderthals, of course, are no worse than mammoths ...
Neanderthals are a dead end branch of hominids that have died out about 28-30 thousand years ago for reasons that have not yet been established. The most popular hypotheses, as possible explanations, indicate a too sharp cooling or unrestrained expansion from our ancestors - Cro -Magnons (it is also possible that the remnants of Neanderthals were completely assimilated by Homo sapiens over time).
Prior to the arrival of sapiens, low -growing and stocky Neanderthals for a long time - for approximately 170 thousand years - reigned in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East (they left Africa 400-250 thousand years ago). More recently, it turned out that they also penetrated into southern Siberia, reached the western end of the present China, maybe further advanced. The fossils that testify in favor of this theory have been found for a long time, but their belonging became indisputable only after genetic analysis. It also recently turned out that Neanderthals were carriers of the “human” variety of the gene, which wears the FOXP2 designation and apparently determines our speech and language skills. Thus, Homo Neanderthalensis was likely to have the ability to articulate.
Sources:
SOME Neanderthals Were Red -Heads - Nature
Ancient DNA Reveals that NEANDERTHALS WERE REDHEADS - Sciencedaily
SOME NeANDERTALS WERE PALE REDHEADS, DNA Suggests - National Geographic News
DNA Reveals Some Neanderthals Were Ginger - Telegraph
Neanderthals 'Were Flame -Haired' - BBC News
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Neanderthals were red and pale -faced
Scientists have proved that Neanderthals were red