Neanderthal–the untold story,Europe Land of the Blacks

[djoser-xyyman]

Africa – Land of the “Whites”





I got a few PM asking me about what made me think Neaderthals were black skinned. This is the article/abstract that gave it away. Following up on the paper. Yes indeed. Neanderthal was black skinned, black hair and black eyes. Go figure.

I was puzzled by what they meant in the bolded section. It seems like thay suggested that Neanderthal remained unchanged in pigmentation but their bone structure change dramatically during the evolutionary period. However human pigmentation changed but there was very little change in our(AMH) bone structure.

So, obviously, for a thinking man, the follow-up question would be …what was the “unchanged” pigmentation of Nenderthal?

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Patterns of coding variation in the complete exomes of three Neandertals
Sergi Castellanoa,1, …, and Svante Pääbo
Significance
We use a hybridization approach to enrich the DNA from the protein-coding fraction of the genomes of two Neandertal individuals from Spain and Croatia. By analyzing these two exomes together with the genome sequence of a Neandertal from Siberia we show that the genetic diversity of Neandertals was lower than that of present-day humans and that the pattern of coding variation suggests that Neandertal populations were small and isolated from one another. We also show that genes involved in skeletal morphology have changed more than expected on the Neandertal evolutionary lineage whereas genes involved in pigmentation and behavior have changed more on the modern human lineage. .

Abstract
We present the DNA sequence of 17,367 protein-coding genes in two Neandertals from Spain and Croatia and analyze them together with the genome sequence recently determined from a Neandertal from southern Siberia. Comparisons with present-day humans from Africa, Europe, and Asia reveal that genetic diversity among Neandertals was remarkably low, and that they carried a higher proportion of amino acid-changing (nonsynonymous) alleles inferred to alter protein structure or function than present-day humans. Thus, Neandertals across Eurasia had a smaller long-term effective population than present-day humans. We also identify amino acid substitutions in Neandertals and present-day humans that may underlie phenotypic differences between the two groups. We find that genes involved in skeletal morphology have changed more in the lineage leading to Neandertals than in the ancestral lineage common to archaic and modern humans, whereas genes involved in behavior and pigmentation have changed more on the modern human lineage.

[djoser-xyyman]

For those who who have problems with visuals. The in situ data shows Neanderthals were blacks, AMH were predominantly blacks skinned up to about 4000bc. Selective sweep occurring during the Copper Age (2000bc).

Thus Europe..."Land of the Blacks"