Neanderthals did not interbreed with humans, scientists find

[Jazzy]

The genetic traits between humans and Neanderthals are more likely from a shared ancestry rather than interbreeding, a British study has suggested.



Cambridge University researchers concluded that the DNA similarities were unlikely to be the result of human-Neanderthal sex during their 15,000-year coexistence in Europe.



People living outside Africa share as much as four per cent of their DNA with Neanderthals, a cave-dwelling species with muscular short arms and legs and a brain slightly larger than ours.



The Cambridge researchers examined demographic patterns suggesting that humans were far from intimate with the species they displaced in Europe almost 40,000 years ago.



The study into the genomes of the two species, found a common ancestor 500,000 years ago would be enough to account for the shared DNA.



Their analysis, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), contradicts recent studies that found inter-species mating, known as hybridisation, probably occurred.

Full article

 

[DrLeftover]

Oh please.



They say this stuff with absolute certanty, until they change their mind the next time somebody turns over another rock.



For instance:

At the least, the fossils confirm that at least three different human species inhabited the same Kenyan neighborhood at the dawn of humanity, according to a new study led by paleontologists Meave and Louise Leakey.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ossils-homo-nature-science-meave-leakey-flat/





Instead of that old illustration from science books of a straight line of marching ape men that then turn into cave men that then end up with a 'modern human' with a smart phone who walks into a telephone pole the evolutionary history of modern humans probably looks more like a botched formation from marching band practice.



Such as was mentioned in a discussion of the ruling family of Imperial Rome:

....When the old man died, some say with help from his nephew, and with Tiberius's surviving offspring a young child, Caligula seized power.

His rule started out as a breath of fresh air compared to his uncle's reign (it is possible Tiberius was both his grandfather and his uncle, seems the family tree is somewhat tangled).

http://themediadesk.com/newfiles2/meta2a.htm