

40,000-year-old jawbone reveals early modern humans interbred with Neandertals - curtis
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-genetic-analysis-year-old-jawbone-reveals.html

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curtis
The actual article title is:

"Genetic analysis of 40,000-year-old jawbone reveals early modern humans
interbred with Neandertals".

The fact that modern humans have some Neanderthal ancestry is a well-known
fact these days, and does not capture what is really notable about this
particular find. The title I used on the submission is:

"DNA from a 40,000 year old jawbone reveals very recent Neanderthal ancestry"

which I think accurately reflects the content of the article and communicates
to the reader why this article might be worth reading.

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Yetanfou
Imagine... if Neanderthals were still around today. How would society view
them? Would they be social outcasts, literally, a caste of individuals
destined for menial jobs (garbage collection, etc.)? Would there have arisen
an extreme form of political correctness, denying any difference between the
species because "we're all human beings"? That there would have been
differences is clear, both physical - Neanderthals were much stronger than
modern human beings - as well as mental, although it is unclear how those
mental differences would have played out - Neanderthals had bigger brains than
modern humans do.

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ajbetteridge
I don't understand why it's always been such a surprise that various hominid
groups interbred. It's not like one day there were Neandertals and the next
day they stopped existing and the next group took over. Surely that's just
part and parcel of evolutionary theory?

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danieltillett
Not really since the whole idea about species is they don't actually
interbreed. What I find most interesting about the whole human genetic story
is all sides were right. The out of Africa side is right and the regional
hypothesis side is also right. This is not what I expected 10 years ago.

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gscott
If she is cute, hit it. Enough said.

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danieltillett
All the Neanderthal gene flow in living humans came in from the male side - it
is more like if he is cut, hit it (Neanderthal's were significantly stronger
and more muscular than other humans).

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gscott
Women still go for the Neanderthal's. Guess things never change :)

