Nadene Goldfoot
I happen to have 61% more of Neanderthal genes than other clients of 23&Me. It could be because I am a very senior 86 years old now. My DNA happens to have less than -2% of DNA from Neanderthals. You inherited a small amount of DNA from your Neanderthal ancestors. Out of the 2,872 variants we tested, we found 284 variants in your DNA that trace back to the Neanderthals. My son's percent remained the same as mine, but his son's percent was only 43% more of Neanderthal genes compared to other clients at 23&me.
Now, just who are Neanderthals? 40,000 years ago they went extinct. You know that when a female horse is crossed with a male donkey, a mule is created, but a mule cannot reproduce. Well, Neanderthals have been found since 2010 to be not the old "Homo neanderthalensis, but now is to be known as Homo sapiens neaderthalensis, a subspecies of Homo sapiens. They did cross and produce children who could also cross, unlike the horse and donkey.
Between 1% and 4% of the genomes of people in Eurasia are derived from Neandertals. "Neandertals are on average closer to individuals in Eurasia than to individuals in Africa." Neandertals are as closely related to a Chinese and Papuan individual as to a French individual. The gene flow between Neandertals and modern humans that we detect most likely occurred before the divergence of Europeans, East Asians, and Papuans. (Papua New Guinea, in the southwestern Pacific, encompasses the eastern half of New Guinea and its offshore islands. A country of immense cultural and biological diversity, it’s known for its beaches and coral reefs. Inland are active volcanoes, granite Mt. Wilhelm, dense rainforest and hiking routes like the Kokoda Trail. Our anatomically hirsute cousins are actually our genetic brothers!
This is a modified OUT OF AFRICA theory and it holds that around 400,000 years ago, a population of hominids migrated northward through the Middle East and into Europe and parts of western Asia.
Between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, another population from the ancestral continent journeyed a similar route into the Eurasian landmass, and there the 2 populations met and mated. We are their descendants. Neandertal did not go extinct, because it was never a separate species; instead population pockets of Neandertals died out around 30,000 years ago.
Both Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens could make fire, flaked stone tools, and clothing from animal skins. We know they lived side by side for more than 10,000 years. What became of them? Did they mate with Homo sapiens? Genome sequencing indicated they may live on in some of us and they do, with some more than others.
Deep in the caves of Goyet in Belgium researchers have found the grisly evidence that the Neanderthals did not just feast on horses or reindeer, but also on each other. They were cannibals.
Human bones from a newborn, a child and four adults or teenagers who lived around 40,000 years ago show clear signs of cutting and of fractures to extract the marrow within, they say.
Other Neandertal populations survived through interbreeding with their modern human brothers and sisters, who live on to this day."
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( /dɪˈniːsəvə/ di-NEE-sə-və) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few remains, and, consequently, most of what is known about them comes from DNA evidence. The first Denisovan individual was identified in 2010 based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from a juvenile female finger bone from the Siberian Denisova Cave. Nuclear DNA (DNA) indicates close affinities with Neanderthals. The cave was also periodically inhabited by Neanderthals, but it is unclear whether they ever cohabited in the cave. No, no Denisovan in my genes. Neandertal is enough.
Early European modern humans (or Cro-Magnons) were the first early modern humans (Homo sapiens) to settle Europe, continuously occupying the continent since at least 48,000 years ago. They interacted and interbred with the indigenous Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis), who disappeared 40,000 years ago; and from 37,000 onwards, all EEMH descended from a single founder population which contributes ancestry to present-day Europeans.
Resource
Scientific American: Magazine;August 21-Our Neandertal Brethren,by Michael Shermer
23&Me; my test, results
https://www.csueastbay.edu/museum/pre-exhibit/dna/history-neanderthal.html
https://phys.org/news/2016-12-caves-neanderthals-cannibals.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan#:~:text=The%20Denisovans%20or%20Denisova%20hominins,them%20comes%20from%20DNA%20evidence.
https://humanjourney.us/discovering-our-distant-ancestors-section/homo-neanderthalensis/
Jean M. Auel, the Clan of the Cave Bear, 1980; The Valley of Horses; The Mammoth Hunters; The Plains of Passage (1990); The Shelters of Stone (2002)
Jean Marie Auel is an American writer who wrote the Earth's Children books, a series of novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores human activities during this time, and touches on the interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
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