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Study suggests that neanderthal admixture unlikely

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JakobVirgil
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17 Aug 2012, 8:34 pm

My feelings are officially hurt.

Quote:
Effect of ancient population structure on the degree of polymorphism shared between modern human populations and ancient hominins
Anders Eriksson1 and Andrea Manica1
- Author Affiliations

Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
Edited by Francisco Mauro Salzano, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, and approved July 20, 2012 (received for review January 19, 2012)

Abstract

Recent comparisons between anatomically modern humans and ancient genomes of other hominins have raised the tantalizing, and hotly debated, possibility of hybridization. Although several tests of hybridization have been devised, they all rely on the degree to which different modern populations share genetic polymorphisms with the ancient genomes of other hominins. However, spatial population structure is expected to generate genetic patterns similar to those that might be attributed to hybridization. To investigate this problem, we take Neanderthals as a case study, and build a spatially explicit model of the shared history of anatomically modern humans and this hominin. We show that the excess polymorphism shared between Eurasians and Neanderthals is compatible with scenarios in which no hybridization occurred, and is strongly linked to the strength of population structure in ancient populations. Thus, we recommend caution in inferring admixture from geographic patterns of shared polymorphisms, and argue that future attempts to investigate ancient hybridization between humans and other hominins should explicitly account for population structure.


This also would apply to the Australian indigenous folks and their cousins to the south.
so how did we get those browridges?


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Kraichgauer
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18 Aug 2012, 3:02 am

Pronounced brow ridges weren't unknown among early modern humans, they just weren't as pronounced as that of archaic humans. Australian Aborigines are not the only moderns with epic brow ridges - - my pastor has a pretty spectacular ridge shading his eyes. As his family hails from the far north in Germany (Hamburg and Fehmarn Island), it would make sense, as one anthropologist years ago had sworn he had seen modern Neanderthals in north Germany and the Netherlands. In fact, they were more likely descended from Europe's aboriginal population of the Ice Age, who were fully modern humans.
But yeah, I'm disappointed with the notion that the whole gene pool of the Neanderthal people had been a genetic dead end, with no survival in us. Is this abstract representative of the current anthropological viewpoint regarding our relationship with Neanderthals? Or is there a dissenting opinion among men of science regarding the mixing of gene pools?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer



ruveyn
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18 Aug 2012, 9:27 am

Kraichgauer wrote:
Pronounced brow ridges weren't unknown among early modern humans, they just weren't as pronounced as that of archaic humans. Australian Aborigines are not the only moderns with epic brow ridges - - my pastor has a pretty spectacular ridge shading his eyes. As his family hails from the far north in Germany (Hamburg and Fehmarn Island), it would make sense, as one anthropologist years ago had sworn he had seen modern Neanderthals in north Germany and the Netherlands. In fact, they were more likely descended from Europe's aboriginal population of the Ice Age, who were fully modern humans.
But yeah, I'm disappointed with the notion that the whole gene pool of the Neanderthal people had been a genetic dead end, with no survival in us. Is this abstract representative of the current anthropological viewpoint regarding our relationship with Neanderthals? Or is there a dissenting opinion among men of science regarding the mixing of gene pools?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer


The fact is that no one knows for sure. We have no way of knowing what percentage of Sapien-Neanderthal matings produced viable issue that grew up and later reproduced. For all we know, Sapien-Neanderthal hybrids might have been sterile.

ruveyn



JakobVirgil
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18 Aug 2012, 10:15 am

Kraichgauer wrote:
Pronounced brow ridges weren't unknown among early modern humans, they just weren't as pronounced as that of archaic humans. Australian Aborigines are not the only moderns with epic brow ridges - - my pastor has a pretty spectacular ridge shading his eyes. As his family hails from the far north in Germany (Hamburg and Fehmarn Island), it would make sense, as one anthropologist years ago had sworn he had seen modern Neanderthals in north Germany and the Netherlands. In fact, they were more likely descended from Europe's aboriginal population of the Ice Age, who were fully modern humans.
But yeah, I'm disappointed with the notion that the whole gene pool of the Neanderthal people had been a genetic dead end, with no survival in us. Is this abstract representative of the current anthropological viewpoint regarding our relationship with Neanderthals? Or is there a dissenting opinion among men of science regarding the mixing of gene pools?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
\

closer to the latter I expect to see some vigorous give and take on the subject in the upcoming years.


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BrandonSP
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18 Aug 2012, 11:04 am

I never found the recent claims about Neanderthal or Denisovan admixture in modern humans very persuasive. All the mtDNA studies before 2010 found no evidence of a Neanderthal or other archaic contribution to the modern human gene pool, so I took the much publicized Green paper's claims with a big pinch of salt. Furthermore, a lot of racialists with a vested interest in exaggerating genetic distances between different modern human populations have used Green et al to justify their beliefs, so in a sense this sort of finding relieves me. I know not everyone who believes in an archaic contribution supports racialism, but the racialists definitely seem the most giddy about the idea in my experience.

That said, I have an uncle of German descent with a prominent brow ridge like a Neanderthal.


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JakobVirgil
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18 Aug 2012, 11:26 am

BrandonSP wrote:
I never found the recent claims about Neanderthal or Denisovan admixture in modern humans very persuasive. All the mtDNA studies before 2010 found no evidence of a Neanderthal or other archaic contribution to the modern human gene pool, so I took the much publicized Green paper's claims with a big pinch of salt. Furthermore, a lot of racialists with a vested interest in exaggerating genetic distances between different modern human populations have used Green et al to justify their beliefs, so in a sense this sort of finding relieves me. I know not everyone who believes in an archaic contribution supports racialism, but the racialists definitely seem the most giddy about the idea in my experience.

That said, I have an uncle of German descent with a prominent brow ridge like a Neanderthal.


There is an element of if white folks have Neanderthal genes it makes them better but if people with a little melanin have Denisovan genes they are somehow subhuman.

As the denisovan draft genome gets closer to finish I wonder if the 6% with the folks from down under will even hold up. For now it looks like your German uncle and Ernie Dingo got there respective manly brows off the same shelf. Your right it does give one a feeling of the brotherhood of man. (and the sorority of the chicks that hang out with us I guess. :wink: )


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XFilesGeek
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18 Aug 2012, 11:43 am

And yet another crackpot "origins of autism" theory bites the dust (sorta).

Thanks for posting.


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