Kissin' Cousins

Paleoanthropology note for the day:

Some Neanderthals may have had fair skin and red hair, giving them an appearance resembling modern Europeans, an international team of researchers said on Thursday.

The researchers homed in on the MC1R gene linked to hair and skin color and used DNA analysis to find a variation that produced the same kind of pigmentation changes as in humans with red hair and pale skin. . . .

The study, published in the journal Science, comes a week after another set of researchers looking at a different gene said Neanderthals may have been capable of sophisticated speech.

John McKay at archy takes this as evidence of something:

This is just one more piece of evidence that supports my theory that the first people were Scots-Irish and that the rest of you are living on our planet due to our good nature and generous spirit.

Not to tout my own Scots-Irish background (by way of Appalachia, of course), but I'm sure there's something to that. I have a major weakness for the big, red-headed caveman type.

Articulate, not so much.

Here's a more substantial article on these findings.

Footnote: Actually, being the kind of "let's follow this interesting looking tangent" sort of person I am, I just spent a fascinating few minutes reading about Neandertals according to various sources. (I also discovered a wonderful new search engine/website, Answers.com.) It's not only a fascinating bunch of entries on Neandertal man, but also a good look at the variations on interpretation of evidence in science, starting with the decision to classify Neandertals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens (that is, me and you) or a species of its own, which has direct implications for the provenance of, say, the red-headed gene in modern human populations (i.e., independent origin, which is certainly not out of the question, or by direct descent, which ups my chances of finding my own red-headed caveman).

Another Footnote:

Under the heading of "this looks like an interesting tangent":

Fascinating article on the evolution of maize from SF Matheson at Quintessence of Dust. (Another new and very interesting blog.) Very good, clear article on the evolution of teosinte into our everyday American corn (maize) through the agency of selection -- and only selection. Very good explanations of some of the mechanisms involved. Use it next time you have to deal with the neighborhood creationist. (Thanks to PZ Myers.)


Yes, I just made up the word "frivoling" from the same root as "frivolous."