My favorite Neanderthal.
Posted on 01/16/2005 12:47:07 PM PST by IGBT
London - Red hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals, according to a new study by British scientists.
Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford were quoted by The Times as saying the so-called "ginger gene" which gives people red hair, fair skin and freckles could be up to 100 000 years old.
They claim that their discovery points to the gene having originated in Neanderthal man who lived in Europe for 200 000 years before Homo sapien settlers, the ancestors of modern man, arrived from Africa about 40 000 years ago.
Rosalind Harding, the research team leader, told The Times: "The gene is certainly older than 50 000 years and it could be as old as 100 000 years.
"An explanation is that it comes from Neanderthals." It is estimated that at least 10 percent of Scots have red hair and a further 40 percent carry the gene responsible, which could account for their once fearsome reputation as fighters.
Neanderthals have been characterised as migrant hunters and violent cannibals who probably ate most of their meat raw. They were taller and stockier than Homo sapiens, but with shorter limbs, bigger faces and noses, receding chins and low foreheads.
The two species overlapped for a period of time and the Oxford research appears to suggests that they must have successfully interbred for the "ginger gene" to survive. Neanderthals became extinct about 28 000 years ago, the last dying out in southern Spain and southwest France. - Sapa-DPA
If British Scientists are being paid to write gags, and if Gag writers earn their living by making aleged scientific discoveries; it explains a lot about the confusion we are experiencing deciding whether to laugh at science or fret over the content of jokes.
Redhead PING
The "Black Irish" are sometimes attributed to shipwrecked Spanish invaders following the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588. However, it appears that most of the survivors were imprisoned or killed if they landed on Irish shores. Additionally, many Spanish sailors were Galicians, and thus did not fit the swarthy stereotype of Spaniards. In fact, many of them would have resembled the fairer Celtic Irish. Furthermore, the general absence of Spanish surnames would indicate that there was little effect from the shipwrecked maritimer. Rather, the "Black Irish" reflect a much older population.
The Celtic invaders of the British Isles were generally fair haired and light eyed, and, while they brought their language and culture to Ireland, the Celts did not exterminate the inhabitants. Irish mythology generally pictures the heroes as fair complected, and in all likelihood, the aristocracy had that appearance. The Vikings and the Anglo-Normans brought into Ireland a large number of Scandinavian, English, northern French, and Flemish genes well before the Reformation. Names thought of as "typically" Irish like Doyle, Burke, and Clarke reflect Scandinavian, Norman French, and English origins.
The "real" Irish are a mixture of pre-Celtic, Celtic, and Germanic origins, as indeed are their British neighbors and, to some extent, the inhabitants of the Low Countries. They can be dark and almost Latin looking like Colin Farrell or Moira Kelly, redheads (Neanderthals?) like James Cagney or Maureen O'Hara, or blonde and almost Scandinavian looking like Peter O'Toole or Grace Kelly.
How did we go from Scottish to Irish in this post? I am always interested in my ancestry, since it is almost exclusively from the British Isles, including Ireland, but does anyone know more about Scots to input on this discussion? I would hate for it to be left to the Neanderthals at this point! LOL!
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, General Daniel Morgan, Alexander Hamilton, General Layfayette, And countless other Revolutionary War heroes and patriots were ALL REDHEADS.
Would explain Maureen Dowd.
Where are all the redheaded men out there? I know there have to be famous handsome men with red hair but I can't think of any
I agree. I believe the entity they are referring to is actually titled The Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DS. URL is www.imm.ox.ac.uk but it doesn't respond for me.
YEC INTREP
I think I watched that movie at that time for just that reason. :)
The Lowlanders were the primary contributor to the Elizabethan and Cromwellian settlement of northern Ireland to establish an area of that island that was solidly Protestant and pro-English. While northern English and Highlanders, plus "old" Irish and French Huguenots, were among the invaders, the Lowland Scots were the core of this group. Forced to leave northern Ireland by persecution by the Anglican church or due to economic hardship, these settlers emigrated in large numbers to America in the 18th and early 19th Century. Here, they were known as the Scots-Irish and became the predominant population of the Upland South, from the Shenandoah Valley to the Texas High Plains.
The Highlanders are more closely akin to the Irish. Indeed, the term "Scots", first applied to the Highlanders and later to all the people north of the English border, was a term used in Roman and early medieval times to apply to the Irish. Scots Gaelic is closely akin to Irish Gaelic. The clan form of government and the warlike character of the Highlanders are other Irish legacies. There is a stronger Scandinavian influence among the Highlanders than with either the Lowlanders or the Irish. Northeastern Scotland was heavily settled by Vikings. The name of the county Sutherland, oddly in far northern Scotland, reflects the fact that it was the southernmost dominion of the kings of Norway. On the other hand, the Highlanders were less influenced by Anglo-Norman settlers than were the Irish.
The bottom line is that the Scots, both Lowlanders and Highlanders, like the Irish, and for that matter the English, are an amalgam of several western and northern European peoples.
Oh cool! This thread is back again! I do notice that guys with red hair drink lots of whisky and get in lots of fist fights, if those are at all neandertal traits. Being 1/4 Irish, and some Scot, I figure I'm allowed to make rude remarks on this subject:-)
Does this explain why my wife can go off like a powderkeg placed to close to a spark and destroy me with a few well chosen words and keep me fully in love with her the whole time? Or is that just a female thing?
Charles Dance, English actor. One of the very few.
Charles Dance, English actor. One of the very few.
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