The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

I really liked this group and they aren't a secular band but I liked them anyway, lol.

By Paul Rincon

Science reporter, BBC News





Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.



The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.



The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome - the "instruction manual" describing how these ancient humans were put together.



Between 1% and 4% of the Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals.



But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.



[Neanderthals] are not totally extinct, in some of us they live on - a little bit



Professor Svante Paabo

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

The most widely-accepted theory of modern human origins - known as Out of Africa - holds that the ancestors of living humans (Homo sapiens) originated in Africa some 200,000 years ago.



A relatively small group of people then left the continent to populate the rest of the world between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.



While the Neanderthal genetic contribution - found in people from Europe, Asia and Oceania - appears to be small, this figure is higher than previous genetic analyses have suggested.



"They are not totally extinct. In some of us they live on, a little bit," said Professor Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.



Professor Chris Stringer, research leader in human origins at London's Natural History Museum, is one of the architects of the Out of Africa theory. He told BBC News: "In some ways [the study] confirms what we already knew, in that the Neanderthals look like a separate line.



"But, of course, the really surprising thing for many of us is the implication that there has been some interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans in the past."



"It seemed like it was likely to be possible, but I am surprised by the amount. I really was not expecting it to be as high as 4%," he said of the genetic contribution from Neanderthals.



The sequencing of the Neanderthal genome is a landmark scientific achievement, the product of a four-year-long effort led from Germany's Max Planck Institute but involving many other universities around the world.



The project makes use of efficient "high-throughput" technology which allows many genetic sequences to be processed at the same time.



The draft Neanderthal sequence contains DNA extracted from the bones of three different Neanderthals found at Vindija Cave in Croatia.



Retrieving good quality genetic material from remains tens of thousands of years old presented many hurdles which had to be overcome.



The samples almost always contained only a small amount of Neanderthal DNA amid vast quantities of DNA from bacteria and fungi that colonised the remains after death. Svante Paabo led the research effort.



The Neanderthal DNA itself had broken down into very short segments and had changed chemically. Luckily, the chemical changes were of a predictable nature, allowing the researchers to write software that corrected for them.



Writing in Science journal, the researchers describe how they compared this draft sequence with the genomes of modern people from around the globe.



"The comparison of these two genetic sequences enables us to find out where our genome differs from that of our closest relative," said Professor Paabo.



Those things that made the Neanderthals apparent to us as a population - those things didn't work.



Dr John Hawks

University of Wisconsin-Madison



The results show that the genomes of non-Africans (from Europe, China and New Guinea) are closer to the Neanderthal sequence than are those from Africa.



The most likely explanation, say the researchers, is that there was limited mating, or "gene flow", between Neanderthals and the ancestors of present-day Eurasians.



This must have taken place just as people were leaving Africa, while they were still part of one pioneering population. This mixing could have taken place either in North Africa, the Levant or the Arabian Peninsula, say the researchers.



Professor Stringer added: "Any functional significance of these shared genes remains to be determined, but that will certainly be a focus for the next stages of this fascinating research."



The Out of Africa theory contends that modern humans replaced local "archaic" populations like the Neanderthals.



But there are several variations on this idea. The most conservative model proposes that this replacement took place with no interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals.



Unique features



Another version allows for a degree of assimilation, or absorption, of other human types into the Homo sapiens gene pool.



The latest research strongly supports the Out of Africa theory, but it falsifies the most conservative version of events.



The team identified more than 70 gene changes that were unique to modern humans. These genes are implicated in physiology, the development of the brain, skin and bone.



The researchers also looked for signs of "selective sweeps" - strong natural selection acting to boost traits in modern humans. They found 212 regions where positive selection may have been taking place.



The scientists are interested in discovering genes that distinguish modern humans from Neanderthals because they may have given our evolutionary line certain advantages over the course of evolution.



The most obvious differences were in physique: the muscular, stocky frames of Neanderthals contrast sharply with those of our ancestors. But it is likely there were also more subtle differences, in behaviour, for example.



Dr Hawks commented that the amount of Neanderthal DNA in our genomes seemed high: "What it means is that any traits [Neanderthals] had that might have been useful in later populations should still be here.



"So when we see that their anatomies are gone, this isn't just chance. Those things that made the Neanderthals apparent to us as a population - those things didn't work. They're gone because they didn't work in the context of our population."



Researchers had previously thought Europe was the region where Neanderthals and modern humans were most likely to have exchanged genes. The two human types overlapped here for some 10,000 years.



The authors of the paper in Science do not rule out some interbreeding in Europe, but say it was not possible to detect this with present scientific methods.



Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8660940.stm



This kind of goes along with what I am reading about ancient genetic engineering. Isn't this interesting?

This is my answer to a closed thread.



I believe that some of the other more popular forums were not connected because this isn't even in the top ten in popularity or at least the five because I haven't found it in any of the lists. Facebook is the most popular, not even MySpace. I get kinda bored over in Facebook but people go there because there are a wider range of people with other interests. This is interest specific and monitored to stay that way so many go to Facebook instead for networking. Here there are people mainly with IDs and not their real names. They have them over there too but they are a minority compared to most forums. You can rub elbows so to speak with the whose who of who, lol.

Have you ever noticed that when one tries to research a somewhat controversial subject that deals with ancient historical data that it is hard to know who has the story right?



You have the archeologists who argue over everything, the religious fanatics, the linguists, historians and the conspiracy theorists among others all writing crazy ideas. Somewhere crazy has to stop and reality begin. Perhaps the truth is not the one most would accept. The religious people are the worst because they base their ideas on nothing more than whatever books are used for their beliefs. One in particular being the worst. It is a known fact that the Jews plaigarized many of their early writings from older ones and then the scribes tried to justify it by stating it was inspired by God which they write G_d. Who is God anyway? Trust me I know all about the Cult of Yahweh and I didn't come up with that label. No one can even decide on the word Elohim as to whether it is plural or not and what it is describing. Only various factions will say, heh...it is this. I think none of them know at all...they are all deciding on belief systems. It is like they stole he/she or it and everyone should know when that title is stated what it means. I am so fed up with the bickering and people countermanding others who have different ideas. They all sound wacky if you step back and really read what they are saying but yet you have all these factions that believe what some of them write. You cannot use the argument that someone has no education because some of these people have PHds such as the guy who started exopolitics. I simply don't know what to think about him at all. I personally am not saying I generally believe what any of them say or am discounting anyone's beliefs or practices. I am not saying personally anything derogatory about any religion even if I mention one...this is what the historians and scholars have written. The thing is that it is so hard to know what is what. I have heard similar things about the two other major religious groups. This is neither here nor there because beliefs are personal. So if you don't agree, you need to address the secular researchers into ancient history. It isn't because they are anti any culture, it is what the historical timelines and writings show to be the case and who wrote what first. I am just looking for someone who doesn't bring in outside influences to decifer cuneiform or to prove anything that has to be proven by making any one culture look deceiving. I am not interested in that.



I cannot find one unbiased researcher that can give me the facts and only that. There is always a slant and the least of which do I want to hear from those who are going only on a religious basis because most of that is just as non provable as all the rest in my opinion. You cannot get away from religion or politics...it is staggering. I am just looking for someone who has the expertise for translation and won't go off on any tangents.