Echetlaeus
Hero of Marathon
Does it still exist among Europeans, and if yes, in which countries we find the highest percentage?
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app. Tuscany
Prof. John Hawks (2012) - Uni. of Wisconsin
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews...mes-introgression-among-populations-2012.html
'The Tuscans have the highest level of Neandertal similarity of any of the 1000 Genomes Project samples. They have around a half-percent more Neandertal similarity than Brits or Finns in these samples. The CEU sample is slightly elevated compared to Brits and Finns as well'
and app. Ötzi
Prof. John Hawks (2012) - Uni. of Wisconsin
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/neandertals/neandertal_dna/neandertal-ancestry-iced-2012.html
'He has substantially greater sharing with Neanderthals than any other recent person we have ever examined'
This seems to be the case. None essential, not much beneficial parts of Neanderthal DNA is being replaced and mutates in faster rate.I would think that if recent papers are correct, and the human genome has been undergoing purifying selection for these Neanderthal alleles, that the further back you go, the more Neanderthal you would find.
I've always been slightly surprised by these findings, as it certainly doesn't seem to fit with the results on 23andme, where the Tuscans and the Italians in general usually score on the low end of the average for Europeans, usually quite a bit lower than northern Europeans, for example.
Of course, the 1000 genomes project doesn't include any samples from whole swathes of Europe, so perhaps that makes a difference?
These are the only populations sampled from Europe:
View attachment 6330
(Just as an aside, everyone keeps using this same TSI sample when there are actually other Tuscan samples available. They should just call it the Florentine sample. Which brings to mind...did Neanderthals have particularly good visual processing skills? Artistic ability?)
And, when Hawks made that comment about Oetzi, were the genomes of the hunter-gatherers from Sweden, La Brana and Loschbour available?
In fact, now that I think about it, have the results of a comparison between these ancient samples and the Neanderthal ones ever been published?
I would think that if recent papers are correct, and the human genome has been undergoing purifying selection for these Neanderthal alleles, that the further back you go, the more Neanderthal you would find, and therefore you would find more Neanderthal in these samples than in Oetzi.
There are several stories floating around the web after the April 2014 release of a study.
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2014/0...firms-humans-and-neandertals-interbred/102784
The journal this story is based on is here. K. Lohse, L. A. F. Frantz. Neandertal Admixture in Eurasia Confirmed by Maximum Likelihood Analysis of Three Genomes. Genetics, 2014; DOI:
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