"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.
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.
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?
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.
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).
"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.