[continued from previous message]   
      
   >> genes?  Let's not allow this to become a racist question; could be   
   >> insulting to Neanderthals.  My impression is that most people not now   
   >> living in sub-Saharan Africa have Neanderthal or Denisovan genetic   
   >> markers, sometimes both.   
   >>   
   >   
   > There is nothing racist about this reality.  The sloped forehead or the   
   > Denisovan brow ridges are just cosmetic features.  Everyone that is   
   > decended from the group of Modern humans that left Africa around 60,000   
   > years ago have a couple percent Neanderthal DNA in their genomes.  Most   
   > of it is the same 20% of the Neanderthal genome dispersed in most of us   
   > (possibly, due to selection), but the claim is that if you sequence over   
   > 100,000 out of Africa genomes that they might be able to account for   
   > around 80% of the Neanderthal genome.  Certain populations of Europeans   
   > and Asians may have more Neanderthal DNA than most others, and they   
   > think that is just due to founder effects because they have the same   
   > portion of the Neanderthal genome that the rest of us have, they just   
   > have more of it.  Though they have found fossils of hybrids in Europe   
   > and Asia that occurred more recently than the first introgression it   
   > doesn't look like the Neanderthal DNA in those hybrids made it into the   
   > extant population.  They look like dead end family groups that left no   
   > ancestors, or not a significant number to leave much of a trace today.   
   >   
   > This just means that for an obviously recessive or complex trait like   
   > the sloped forehead it should be rare to get the Neanderthal genes   
   > together to produce that phenotype.  Trump did not pass the trait to his   
   > progeny so it is recessive or you need multiple Neanderthal gene   
   > variants to see the trait.  Some Europeans sport Neanderthal brow   
   > ridges.  They are not as pronounced as the Denisovan brow ridges of the   
   > Australoids.  My guess is that the Australoid brow ridges were likely   
   > selected by sexual selection among that group, though some New Guineans   
   > have 12% Denisovan DNA (just 2 generations from the hybrid generation,   
   > if all matings were backcrosses with modern humans, would produce 12.5%   
   > Denisovan DNA).  This is a significant amount, but a lot of the   
   > individuals from the same population have a lot less, but still sport   
   > the heavy brow ridges.  It may be a trait that was preferred for some   
   > reason.   
   >   
   > Ron Okimoto   
   >   
   I was just joking.  I know I have ~2% Neanderthal contribution, but have   
   a more or less vertical forehead and no prominent brow ridges.  All   
   that's due to my predominantly northwest european (England, Scotland,   
   Wales, Norway.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)