Genetic Differences Between Humans and Neanderthals
An international group of scientists completed a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome in May 2010. The results indicate some breeding between humans and Neanderthals, as the genomes of non-African humans have 1-4% more in common with Neanderthals than do the genomes of subsaharan Africans. Neanderthals and most humans share a lactose-intolerant variant of the lactase gene that encodes an enzyme that is unable to break down lactose in milk after weaning. Humans and Neanderthals also share the FOXP2 gene variant associated with brain development and with speech in humans, indicating that Neanderthals may have been able to speak. Chimps have two amino acid differences in FOXP2 compared with human and Neanderthal FOXP2.
Read more about this topic: Human Evolutionary Genetics
Famous quotes containing the words genetic, differences and/or humans:
“We cannot think of a legitimate argument why ... whites and blacks need be affected by the knowledge that an aggregate difference in measured intelligence is genetic instead of environmental.... Given a chance, each clan ... will encounter the world with confidence in its own worth and, most importantly, will be unconcerned about comparing its accomplishments line-by-line with those of any other clan. This is wise ethnocentricism.”
—Richard Herrnstein (1930–1994)
“Toddlerhood resembles adolescence because of the rapidity of physical growth and because of the impulse to break loose of parental boundaries. At both ages, the struggle for independence exists hand in hand with the often hidden wish to be contained and protected while striving to move forward in the world. How parents and toddlers negotiate their differences sets the stage for their ability to remain partners during childhood and through the rebellions of the teenage years.”
—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)
“The land is the host and humans merely guests.”
—Chinese proverb.