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20% of Neanderthal Genome Survives In Humans

vinces99 writes "A substantial fraction of the Neanderthal genome persists in modern human populations. A new analysis (abstract) of 665 people from Europe and East Asia shows that more than 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome survives in the DNA of this contemporary group, whose genetic information is part of the 1,000 Genomes Project." Another study published today (abstract) finds that Neanderthal genes are present in some parts of our genome that we've found to be important. Some of the genes influence fertility and skin pigment, and others actually increase our susceptibility to diseases like diabetes and lupus. The researchers are now taking these known genetic markers and seeing if they correlate with any other health conditions.

202 comments

  1. "fertility skin pigment"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought they meant "fertility skin pigment" to mean coloration of certain reproductive parts.

    But they probably just forgot a comma.

    1. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A quick Google search due to my own confusion seems to have turned up nothing. I second the missing comma.

    2. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is interesting to me that pale skin and straight hair are throwbacks to Neanderthals and demonstrate a more primitive origin in Europeans

      Particularly since that same group attempted to use dark skin and curly hair to prove that Africans were more primitive

      o teh lulz

    3. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by shaitand · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There's no such thing as more primitive in a genetic sense which makes it ridiculous in both cases. Anything alive today is the result of all the evolution that has taken place since the first bits of life and is therefore equally evolved.

    4. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by buswolley · · Score: 2
      Thank you.

      Also, 20% is a lot, so we might as well call it human DNA. We own it now, its shapes us.

      ...and whatever homosapiens mingled lines with the Neanderthals cannot really claim to be *more human* than we are now...they were something else. If we call them homo-sapiens, then we are not homo sapiens, but the hybrid.

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    5. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by shaitand · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not that I disagree but it's worth pointing out that the summary is a bit misleading. Europeans share these genes but africans do not and it's 20% of the .15% of the neaderthal genome that is distinct, obviously humans share a lot more than 20% of their DNA with neaderthals, we share a lot more than that with primates!

    6. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Immerman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not entirely. Evolution is most meaningfully measured in generations, not years. Those species that have averaged a more rapid average reproductive cycle since their ancestors parted ways with ours will have undergone more evolutionary iterations than us. Mice are in the lead pack among mammals. And bacteria leave even mice in the dust, even before you factor in the fact that for them sex is more like performing limited genetic engineering on themselves, allowing useful mutations to spread through the population without any reproduction occurring. Granted they also lack the chaotic genetic roulette of sexual reproduction that the "higher" organisms benefit from, so their average evolution/generation is probably somewhat different than ours.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    7. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by buswolley · · Score: 1

      I wonder what other groups of primates we share DNA with that we know nothing about?

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    8. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      The amount of change caused by evolution is most meaningfully measured in generations, the rate at which generations occur is itself the product of evolution. More is simply more, not necessarily better.

    9. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      That we now nothing about? Obviously I don't know. But we share 96% of our DNA with chimps. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html

    10. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by schlachter · · Score: 1

      Primitive in the genetic sense means that it contains lots of DNA that's been around for a very long time, rather than DNA which has come into existence more recently.

      Selection pressure is not uniform across all life forms, therefore, there can be more or less evolving going on at different times, locations, species, etc.

      --
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    11. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mice are in the lead pack among mammals.

      Mice are pandimensional, so not a fair comparison.

    12. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no such thing as more primitive in a genetic sense which makes it ridiculous in both cases. Anything alive today is the result of all the evolution that has taken place since the first bits of life and is therefore equally evolved.

      Wrong. Not all species has new generation at the same rate. Bacteria are more evolved, also if you consider the amount of gene as a factor(eg: organism tend to gain more gene as time pass rather then lose them) plant are definitively more evolved.

      Your 'equally evolved' is PC bullshit. Like everything in nature, some are more and some are less. Equality is a social construct.

    13. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 1

      It's true. The cows we have today aren't more advanced than yesterday's cows, but rather today's cows are groomed towards the goal of a higher quality hamburger. And these cows are therefore probably less capable and less advanced than cows from 100 years ago.

      Evolution doesn't have a goal, it is a drift towards survivability and therefore reproduction in the current status quo.

      --
      Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
    14. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Since we are pimates, we share 100% of our genome with primates.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    15. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by GbrDead · · Score: 2

      We share 40% of our DNA with grass.

    16. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by codeButcher · · Score: 1

      You may be interested to know that pale skin genes appeared in the European genome only as recently as 6000-12000 years ago. Or maybe not, as it seems you do not want your opinions messed with by fact.

      Interestingly, as Homo sapiens appeared in Europe 40 000 years ago or longer, the thinking is that pale skin should have evolved much sooner to enable vitamin D synthesis from the lower UV levels found there.

      --
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    17. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The hybrids just controlled the ships.

    18. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by some+old+guy · · Score: 1

      Somebody mod up. This explanation makes much more sense than the bullshit racist competition of euro-centrists and afro-centrists we see so much of in this debate.Quantitative difference != qualitative difference.

      --
      Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
    19. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by cusco · · Score: 2

      Aside from Neanderthals and Denisovians, which we know about, at least one more group of genes in Central Asian peoples comes from an "unknown" hominid for which we have no genetic samples. I'll skip the obvious joke about Homo Erectus.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    20. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by benzapp · · Score: 1

      You don't seem to understand modern genetic research.

      Only those of Sub Saharan African descent, i.e. blacks, are purely homospaiens.

      All other people on earth are essentially a hybrid of homosapiens and neanderthals.

      Mainstream "science" sources, generally shy away from genetics because they are beholden to the myth of "equality' and deny the existence of human breeds.

      --
      I don't read or respond to AC posts
    21. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by benzapp · · Score: 1

      Of course quantitative differences result in qualitative differences. What do you think the purpose of DNA is? To prove in your fantasy of equality?

      The stuff creates differences. Every mutation is a difference, which in time becomes either a new breed, or a new species.

      --
      I don't read or respond to AC posts
    22. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Muros · · Score: 1

      Do we know that for sure? The linked article requires a subscription, but if it is the same as this story then it was based on an analysis of the DNA of a single individual from circa 5000BC, who was closely related to northern Europeans but was living in Spain. There are many interpretations one could make from that: that all Europeans were similar to this man, that this guy was of mixed parentage and was relatively unique, that he belonged to a splinter population that got wiped out... I am sure there are many other plausible hypotheses. At the end of the day, you are trying to make a guess about the entire population of Europe from a sample size of one individual near Europe's borders. Was this some other study, and if so can you provide some details please?

    23. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I note the term "suggests" in the article, which translates as "someone's wishful thinking supported mainly by squinting at the evidence". And where's the rule that a given mutation can't arise multiple times??

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    24. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      True, but we share a lot more than 20% our DNA with OTHER primates.

    25. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      I consider amount of time that evolution has been doing it's job to be the only significant factor. There is nothing to say that having short lifespans and changing more rapidly is a superior result. Nor is having a larger gene pool. These things are simply the products of different branches that evolution is working down in it's massively parallel processing alongside natural selection.

      Simple organisms like bacteria evolve genetically in a rapid fashion due to short lifespan whereas very complex organisms like humans have evolved complex mechanisms to allow them to dynamically respond to and overcome most selection pressures during their lifetime. The two are marrying quickly as complex organisms like humans are gaining the capability to use their dynamic response capabilities (sentience, intelligence, tool usage) to augment their own genetic code and steal from the genetic code of other organisms.

    26. Re:"fertility skin pigment"? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      And anyone who things "more evolved" = "better" fundamentally misunderstands the nature of evolution. "More evolved" is more akin to "traveled further", but along a drunkards walk, much of which may not be relevant to current demands on the species.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  2. Yes but by oldhack · · Score: 4, Funny

    You replicate those genes by 3d printing, and offer them for bitcoins, and that's how you end up on slashdot.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  3. As someone who works in tech support... by FuzzNugget · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm surprised it's not higher.

    1. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by dreamchaser · · Score: 2

      I'm surprised it's not higher.

      I agree based on my neighbor Kevin. He looks exactly like reconstructions of Neanderthals.

    2. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does he sell insurance for GEICO?

    3. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Interesting

      But who says Neanderthals were dumber though? They managed to survive the cold climate for much longer than we have (which takes considerable more resources and planning than surviving tropic temperatures), and my knowledge is rudimentary, but from what I seen in documentaries, them dying off/merging may simply have been a matter of a warming earth. They were more barrel chested and not able to withstand the warmer climates as well.

    4. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by westlake · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised it's not higher.

      The Neanderthals were not The Flintstones.

    5. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      Isn't that about what the market share is for network TV?

    6. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      IQs

      IQ != intelligence. The very idea that you can measure someone's intelligent with a simple number and simplistic, specific, one-size-fits-all tests is pseudoscience at best.

    7. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Funny

      " them dying off/merging may simply have been a matter of a warming earth. They were more barrel chested and not able to withstand the warmer climates as well."

      Or they were 80% more tasty.

    8. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also remember reading that Neanderthals and shorter legs and arms, so they were more awkward in running and walking then Homo Sapiens. Also less Dexterous. whether that translated into lower physical strength I am not sure.

    9. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Then we have to consider how much of intelligence doesn't come from genetics, but from other factors, such as nutrition and even disease exposure. Even gestational development would be enough of a factor that you couldn't just test babies out of the womb for their intelligence and rest it all on genetics.

    10. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by tie_guy_matt · · Score: 2

      Remember their brains were the same size, if not a little bigger, than ours. And we know they also had the genes that give us the ability to communicate complex information verbally. So no, I do not think we can say for sure that they were dumber -- not unless we were able to say clone a pure neanderthal and then talk to them to see how smart or dumb they really were.

    11. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by buswolley · · Score: 2

      trolling now, are we? With all we know about the limitations of that measure of cognition? Please.

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    12. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This may be a surprise but the racial groups, such as Europeans and East asians, that carry the Neanderthal fragments, have much higher average IQs than African populations where they are not present. For instance an average European has an average IQ of 105 compared to 70 in Africa. Though, the higher IQ is likely due to divergent racial evolution that occured well after the insertion of neanderthal genes, particularly the cold winters theory, that the groups that left africa had to evolve rapidly larger, more advanced brain capacity to cope with the more difficult, complex survival challenges of cold weather environments, such as the long term planning for winter and the skills needed for making of the clothes needed to survive the cold. The cold weather environment of the north provided the challenges that pushed evolution of specific racial groups to a higher level and explains much of the IQ differences between racial groups.

      How the fuck did this 1930s vintage race theory crap get modded interesting?

    13. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Spy+Handler · · Score: 1, Interesting

      They didn't leave cave paintings or anything that indicates capacity for symbolic reasoning.

      Cro-Magnon man on the other hand, left shitloads of evidence like art and jewelry. Those cave painting in France are very extremely well done, probably better drawn than 95% of current human population could do.

    14. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm looking to start a Neanderthal Pride Parade. We'll flaunt our Neanderthal bits and spread our propaganda.
      Anyone with me?

    15. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by tie_guy_matt · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Despite the fact that the I in IQ stands for intelligence, the standard IQ test is, by design, a measure of how well a person is likely to do in a tradition western school setting. It isn't, and was never meant to be, a measure of a person's worth as a human being or even ones true intelligence. Changes in environment and upbringing can change a person's chances of doing well in school and thus will also change their measurable IQ. So it is likely that certain ethnic groups score differently on their IQ tests, not because of genes or whatever, but because of their environment. Your genes might say that you should be the smartest person in the world; however if you do not get proper nutrition growing up, have parents that are too busy getting what little food is around on the table to read to you, and your early eduction system sucks, then your IQ is going to suffer and you are not going to seem as smart as you could be. Of course this won't stop racists from pointing to tests scores they don't understand in order to peddle their BS.

    16. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A squirrel have enough brain to plan for the winter. Put a squirrel brain inside a human and send her off into the woods and she'll do great. It's not challenging at all, if it was, we'd grow fur. Your entire understanding of evolution is completely wrong.

    17. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      They didn't leave cave paintings or anything that indicates capacity for symbolic reasoning.

      "Billy, stop that drawing! Your father and I don't provide a warm comfortable cave for you to live in just so you can scribble all over the walls like a proto-hominid or one of those low-class Egyptian pyramid dwellers. Now clean that off before your father gets home, and go wash your hands for dinner. The brontosaurus steaks are almost ready... I mean 'uggh, food hot, eat now'."

    18. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by starcraftsicko · · Score: 1

      IQ != intelligence. The very idea that you can measure someone's intelligent with a simple number and simplistic, specific, one-size-fits-all tests is pseudoscience at best.

      We measure virtually everything with a simple number these days. What's your credit score?

    19. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really, can you show us this research, and whether it covers entire racial groups, or just individual heritability?

    20. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by anagama · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Cold Winter Theory? That seems ridiculously simplistic. How about a dry summer theory? If cold winters make people evolve because they need to figure out how to survive the winter, then the exact same argument would apply to people living in the middle of a massive desert. The harsh summers would push them to technology or whatever. Or what about peoples who live near the Arctic Circle -- they should be time travelers by now considering the harshness of their winters.

      I think you are confusing technological knowledge with intelligence, and I'm willing to bet that the first appearance of a technology is due much more to some wild confluence of necessity, chance, state of the technology available prior, and resources to put it into practice. Once discovered, it spreads the easy way, via communication. But for people to pat themselves on the back and call themselves "more evolved" because they live in a place where some clever person was born, saw a need, a solution, and had the resources to make it work -- well, that could happen almost anywhere. You just won the tech lottery -- that doesn't make you evolved, it makes you lucky.

      --
      What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    21. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A quick Google search suggests that it's still an open question whether Neanderthals left cave paintings. I suppose it could be a contrived controversy, but until an anthropology professional chimes in (are you one?) I'm going to assume it's not settled.

    22. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by HiThere · · Score: 2

      From one study of quite awhile back, one reason for Neanderthals dying out was that the heads of Cro-Magnon babies were shaped differently, meaning that Neanderthal mothers with Cro-Magnon fathers tended to die in childbirth, while the reverse wasn't true. There have also been some studies that suggested that their shoulders weren't as well adapted to throwing, so they needed to get close-in with spears, which was more dangerous.

      I can't recall any studies that found that they were stupider than Cro-Magnons which didn't start out by assuming the conclusion. (There have been a few that concluded that their range of vocalizations was smaller, but that's not intelligence, per se.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    23. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given that races do not exist as a scientifically valid categorization (unless you're an historian or sociologist) your contention is prima facie false.

    24. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Also, https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/the-average-african-iq-is-70/, which debunks the whole 70 IQ thing. The fact that so many commentators took it for granted, or that they attacked the very notion of IQ itself, seems incredibly racist to me.

      There are lots of criticisms of IQ as a notion (disregarding testing details), but it's not nearly as bereft of value as people seem to think.

    25. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed; talking isn't everything. A great deal of evidence seems to show that crows are smarter than parrots, at least when it comes to tool use and problem solving.

    26. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could start with the references on the Wikipedia article. The article claims it's more around 80% for adults, though. No idea where he got the 50% figure from.
      While I'm at it, try this: Count the number of mentally retarded persons with IQ at least two deviations above the average. Do the same for two deviations below.

      Now to try to gain a PC point, although it's probably too late: there's some kind of Jew, whose name escapes me, who have IQs much higher than the average.

    27. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by hey! · · Score: 2

      Let us assume for the moment that intelligence is a single thing that can be precisely described by a single number.

      Now imagine nobody has invented a way of measuring that number yet, so you set out to create an IQ test. You put together a number of tests and tasks, and assign various weights to each question and score. You administer the test to a bunch of people and the results seem reasonable.

      Here's the question: how do you know you are actually measuring intelligence, and not something else that approximately correlates with it?

      Alfred Binet, when faced with this problem, validated his test by correlating it with school achievement. This, at least, ensured that the test was at least somewhat useful in predicting school achievement. But it should be obvious that different kinds of people thrive in different kinds of schools, so at best tests calibrated this way are imprecise. We've all known underachievers and overachievers in school.

      At their very best, IQ tests tell us what we expect to hear. That's actually more useful than it sounds, as long as we remember that we've calibrated the test to do just that. Test results must be *contrived* to correlate with things we're interested in. That mightinclude stuff like algebra and geometry, and arguing as in a legal brief, which are all valuable mental tasks. But it might not correlate to stuff like finding food in a forest during an unseasonable drought, or negotiating with a neighboring group, or evaluating the motives of strangers, all of which are tasks requiring mental acuity, and at which people differ in talent.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    28. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i agree. i think i may have more than 20% in me. i've read that they were not very social or as good with language as we are but they were very keen in the vision department and at recognizing patterns. i don't think they were dumber. i think the males were killed off by early humans. think of all the myths from the different cultures - the myths about giants, ogres, etc. as their male numbers dwindled, human males took the more comely females as mates. (see mythology; Odin) i know i like a tall, well-built woman!

      if anything, our Neanderthal DNA is probably what makes us smarter and less violent.

    29. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      This may be a surprise but the racial groups, such as Europeans and East asians, that carry the Neanderthal fragments, have much higher average IQs than African populations where they are not present. For instance an average European has an average IQ of 105 compared to 70 in Africa. Though, the higher IQ is likely due to divergent racial evolution that occured well after the insertion of neanderthal genes, particularly the cold winters theory, that the groups that left africa had to evolve rapidly larger, more advanced brain capacity to cope with the more difficult, complex survival challenges of cold weather environments, such as the long term planning for winter and the skills needed for making of the clothes needed to survive the cold. The cold weather environment of the north provided the challenges that pushed evolution of specific racial groups to a higher level and explains much of the IQ differences between racial groups.

      We know nutrition, culture, and education have huge effects on IQ, and these all factors covary by race both between countries and within countries.

      If you look at charts of countries by IQ you see huge variations across regions with a similar ethnic profile.

      We know non-genetic factors are clearly playing a huge role in these countries, could genetics play a role as well? Sure, but what's our evidence? We already know that IQ varies heavily according to non-ethnic factors within ethnically contiguous regions, it's obviously playing a role in ethnically diverse regions as well.

      Just because race becomes available as a variable in some comparisons doesn't mean it takes the credit from the non-racial factors we know are playing a role.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    30. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Modern Equivalent:
      They didn't paint funky shiz everywhere or bust master rhymes.

      Modern man on the hand makes all kinds of worthless music, video, etc., wears lots of bling, and has spinning, chrome rims.

    31. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by InsectOverlord · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They didn't leave cave paintings or anything that indicates capacity for symbolic reasoning.

      We aren't so sure about that.

    32. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      also, if you think 'giants' invaded our DNA by impregnating the smaller, female humans...think about how likely the mother and child would be to survive that. males humans took neanderthal women as mates. the survivability would be greater.

    33. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From my understanding they died off because of cross-breeding, not because they were all slaughtered by homos. I read that on a much older slashdot article which stated that white people tend to have neanderthal genes while africans tend not to and that neanderthals were far smarter and such. l can't exactly argue against science but I wasn't really interested in reading TFA at the time so I dealt with the snippet and moved on. It's possible all of what I said was wrong heh.

    34. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      Alfred Binet, when faced with this problem, validated his test by correlating it with school achievement.

      In fact the only thing Binet was interested in was deciding what types of classes children should be put in. He specifically said that it wasn't a test of the various and numerous types of intelligence, and that it shouldn't be taken as such. It became perverted when some Americans in the eugenics movement latched onto it. Nowadays psychologists who seriously study intelligence laugh at the idea that the standard IQ tests are a serious measure of intelligence. You may have also heard that the eugenics movement is in somewhat ill repute.

    35. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "Resources and planning" is not the only way to survive the cold. While there is a disagreement with Allen's rule (surface area exposed decreases in colder climates), the generally accepted idea is that physically they were better adapted for cold.

      There may have been social behaviors that account for temperature dependent survival, which is attributable to being fucking cold rather than being smart.

      And the coup de grace. If they died off because of a warming earth, they were not smart enough to adapt to warm. But you're saying they were smart enough to survive cold. That doesn't follow. If they didn't need to adapt to cold, but did need to adapt to warm, then survival was a physical characteristic that required no brains.

      Not saying they were dumb, but you didn't support your idea - you undermined it.

    36. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 1

      >> They managed to survive the cold climate for much longer than we have (which takes considerable more resources and planning than surviving tropic temperatures)

      True. Everyone knows that penguins are far better planners than anacondas.

    37. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember their brains were the same size, if not a little bigger, than ours. And we know they also had the genes that give us the ability to communicate complex information verbally. So no, I do not think we can say for sure that they were dumber

      Ah well. There goes that explanation for the quality of some of the comments on here.

    38. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but it's not nearly as bereft of value as people seem to think.

      No, it is. In fact, it's harmful. It leads people to believe the ridiculous notion that you can know how intelligent someone is by looking at a simple number; in reality, we haven't even come close to understanding intelligence. I know people like Einstein were amazingly intelligent, but there is no way that you could measure exactly how intelligent they were.

      Thanks to this IQ pseudoscience, I see people referring to IQ scores left and right as measures of people's intelligence. It's disturbing, really, but I would expect nothing less out of cultures that value simplicity over truth.

    39. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by allaunjsiIverfox2 · · Score: 1

      But unfortunately, the general public seems to have latched onto the idea that IQ = intelligence.

    40. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there's some kind of Jew, whose name escapes me, who have IQs much higher than the average

      That would be the Ashkenazi Jews (that is those who come from Central European Jewish stock who form the large majority of Jewry worldwide). This population has a mean IQ variously estimated between 0.5 to 1 SDs above the European average (which would equate with a mean IQ of 108-115). The mean for slashdot posters would probably compare favourably (believe it or not!).*

      * And if you don't, spend some time getting involved in "debates" on YouTube.

    41. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the article again.

      It has statements that you may wish to consider, both before and after the section to which you linked.

      Not that the article itself is necessarily a good treatise on the subject, but if you're going to reference it, you should see what it says as a whole.

    42. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by smash · · Score: 1

      In the vein of one of the comments below: do you have paintings on your cave?

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    43. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by m.alessandrini · · Score: 1

      Jokes apart, 20% is really little, considering that (as genetists say) we have 95% in common with chimps.

    44. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

      Well, at the end of the ice age, it was getting warmer. But the Neanderthals simply denied that it got warmer, and therefore claimed that expensive adapting would not be necessary. After all, as long as they could think they had hunted mammoths, so why should they now invest time to find other sources of food? All those warnings about global warming were clearly nonsense. And anyway, last winter was pretty cold, so doesn't that disprove global warming?

      When they could not deny any longer that it was getting warmer, it was too late.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    45. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by nut · · Score: 1

      Please read up on the origin of IQ tests. To the extent they are calibrated to anything apart from other IQ tests, they are calibrated against academic performance. Because they were developed originally by British and French scientists, they are calibrated against specifically European standards of academic performance.

      There is no objective, unambiguously defined, quantifiable quality of "intelligence" that IQ tests can be said to measure. It is an entirely subjective test with no real scientific basis. In fact the only thing that IQ tests absolutely and definitely measure is the ability to do IQ tests.

      Because IQ tests are calibrated mostly against a cultural artifact (European academic culture) Cultural bias is as likely a reason for variations across different cultures (very closely correlated with different races for obvious reasons) as any other factor.

      Until you can rule out cultural bias in any IQ test (and I really don't see how you can) all your theories about genetic differences are meaningless.

      For extra bonus points, find me ANY objective, unambiguous and measurable definition of the term, "intelligence."

      --
      Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
    46. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not? The Christians do it, too.

    47. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Actually I was wondering what the percentage was in Gym Teachers :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    48. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      False.
      Adaptation as a physical characteristic != Adaptation as a mental process (planning)

      Living in the warm weather requires physical adaptation, and does not require to be smart. (you just need to eat whatever grows, all year round)
      Living in the cold weather requires physical adaptation, and also requires to be smart. (you need to plan for the winter, where no food is available)

    49. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, fair enough. Let's assume IQ tests are calibrated to European culture (of course, you have some fancy footwork ahead of you explaining why East Asians on average out-perform Europeans on them, but whatever). They are still an accurate predictor of how one will perform academically and economically in those cultures.

      Given that, wouldn't they still be a valid measure of one's suitability to be admitted to and function within such societies? Such as for screening for potential immigrants?

      You are making a rather pointless argument. You are arguing that we're defining intelligence by one's capacity to perform within European societies. What of it? In most cases, that is exactly what we're trying to measure!

      Whether you want to call capacity to function within an advanced society "intelligence", or by some other name, the fact is you are merely engaging in semantic hair-splitting. IQ test correlate very closely with that capacity.

    50. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      I guess in the bible belt it should read "20% of Humans are Neanderthals "

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    51. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      As long as _your_ IQ is over 55 all is fine, no worries with the right drugs you will catch up with those who only have 70 ...
      (* facepalm *)

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    52. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by cusco · · Score: 1

      Their tool kit was far more primitive than later humans, and only advanced when new peoples brought skills acquired from elsewhere. They don't seem to have been capable of much, if any, innovation on their own. The most advanced Neanderthal cultures always occur where they had the most opportunities to interact with Cro Magnons. Isolated Neanderthal bands kept the identical cultural level for thousands of years.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    53. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Since a low-land Gorilla named Coco taught American Sign Language scored 95 on a standardized human IQ test, I would expect most Neanderthals to score in the 95-105 range like any other normal Human.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    54. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My roommate in college was a Neanderthal. No kidding.

    55. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by qubezz · · Score: 2

      We have homo sapiens that design firmware for avionics systems, and we have homo sapiens who throw spears at metal birds. Same species, the only difference is culture.

      Do not be so fast to judge the capabilities of neanderthal DNA based on the trinkets they left behind. The accomplishments of humans is due to language and learning, specifically learning of invention from the brightest 0.001%; we are still the same species as we were thousands of years ago.

    56. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by allaunjsiIverfox2 · · Score: 1

      Whether you want to call capacity to function within an advanced society "intelligence", or by some other name, the fact is you are merely engaging in semantic hair-splitting.

      It's not semantic hair-splitting at all. Many people now have the wrong idea of intelligence thanks to the pseudoscience that is IQ.

    57. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Eskimos have 300 words to describe snow, I know high school graduates that barely have 300 word vocabularies.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    58. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by Muros · · Score: 1

      because they were all slaughtered by homos

      Whoa, easy there. That could be misconstrued.... and if you were referring to the homo genus, homo sapiens neanderthalensis was a member.

    59. Re:As someone who works in tech support... by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      There is evidence of ritualistic burial.

  4. Just in time by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Fitting article for SuperBowl week.

    1. Re:Just in time by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Fitting article for SuperBowl week.

      WTF! I thought it was Super Bowel "weekend", or Sunday. It's now been extended into the entire week?

  5. In whom? by hooiberg · · Score: 1

    In some more than in others. ;)

  6. Trying to offset... by bob_super · · Score: 2

    I may be 20% neanderthal, but I'm statistically 0.5% Genghis Khan...

    1. Re:Trying to offset... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Khaaaaaan! is definitely more intense-sounding than Thaaalll! or Neeaaaannn!

    2. Re:Trying to offset... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish I could have some Neeaaaannn bread this morning.

  7. Neanderthal Percentage Competition! Post yours! by Bleek+II · · Score: 1

    I'm 3.2% according to 23andme.

    1. Re:Neanderthal Percentage Competition! Post yours! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Im only 2.5%. However this is wrong, or at least somewhat confusing.

        We apparently have 98% in common with a chimp.
        I would imagine modern humans have ~99.99% in common with Neanderthals. Of the sequencing that 23 and Me do ,you may have 3.2% that matches a classic Neanderthal sequence.

        There are some pretty weird stuff going on at 23andme.

      * There race gene thing, doesn't seem to classify Aboriginal Australians, who are one of the most clearly unique races, having been isolated completely for around 10,000, and effectively for 100,000 years
      * All the sequencing is wrong. Well everyone will have atleast one error http://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/23andme-genotypes-are-all-wrong/
      * What are they actually doing with all this data?
      * Why am I 30% "undefined" race.

    2. Re:Neanderthal Percentage Competition! Post yours! by tipo159 · · Score: 1

      2.5% according to the Genographic Project.

    3. Re:Neanderthal Percentage Competition! Post yours! by tipo159 · · Score: 1

      And 2.3% Denisovan

    4. Re:Neanderthal Percentage Competition! Post yours! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2.9%, IQ = 145

    5. Re:Neanderthal Percentage Competition! Post yours! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3.9% here and very proud of it. My wife, a medical doctor, correctly guessed higher than average N. genes due to my morphological features.

  8. Your fire isn't working? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you tried turning it off then on again?

  9. Not found in "humans" in general by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 4, Informative

    These genes do not exist in humanity in general, only specific racial groups. They are completely absent from African populations. Similar to milk digestion. Being able to digest milk in adulthood is a feature found almost only in European race populations, because it is allowed by a genetic mutation that occured in these populations 10,000 years ago. Most other racial groups are lactose intolerant after early childhood. Milk digestion in adulthood is certainly a huge advantage and became much favored with cattle domestication in Europe.

    The insertion of neanderthal genes happened around 30,000 years ago immediately after early humans left africa, after that there were 30,000 years of divergent evolution and branching that gave us the geographically distinct racial groups.

    1. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 0

      I bet we can trace the insertion to Great^32 Grandpa Gronk's famous "hey you drop spearhead" trick stupid Cro-Magnon chicks always fell for.

      --
      I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    2. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      This map distribution show African milk tolerant populations:
      http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/infographic-day-where-people-can-digest-milk

    3. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by smellsofbikes · · Score: 5, Informative

      Lactose intolerance is complex. The Tuareg of Saharan Africa have lower lactose intolerance rates than Finnish people, for instance. It mostly has to do with whether a group has spent a long time as nomadic herders or not, and adult persistence of lactase activity appears to be caused by several different mutations, that arose spontaneously. http://s1.zetaboards.com/anthr... has a nice list of adult lactase activity in different ethnic groups.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    4. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      Several African peoples are traditionally big herders, and rely heavily on dairy for their diets. Same with many in India. IIRC the current theory is that the lactose tolerance mutation occurred (and thrived) independently in several different places.

    5. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Hold my spearhead and watch this"

    6. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by FirephoxRising · · Score: 1

      I understood that the Masai drink cattle milk (and blood), how's their digestion?

    7. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      could explain the recent findings that europeans many thousands of years ago were dark-skinned and the light-skin was a recent development. perhaps neanderthals were light-skinned and contributed to european myths calling them 'frost giants'...they were white like the driven snow.

    8. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by CAIMLAS · · Score: 1

      So, is it safe to say that the Neanderthal DNA may have contributed to the non-complacency which catapulted Western civilization from stone and mud huts to where we are today? It stands to reason that there would be a partial genetic basis, in addition to the fact that places like Europe were more conductive for civilization advancement (more meat animals, 4 seasons, rainfall, etc.).

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    9. Re:Not found in "humans" in general by CAIMLAS · · Score: 1

      I, for one, am surprised there has not been a single Oog comment yet.

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
  10. Re:Coincidance? by mendax · · Score: 0

    20% of people are nigger's. Coincadanse I think not.

    Apparently your have more Neanderthal genes than the average. You obviously are too stupid to know how to spell or turn on your OS's spell checker.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
  11. Cumulative Evolution is Cumulative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not surprising really. Human fetuses have tails in the early stages.

  12. Why so low a commonality? by trims · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Neanderthals are barely a separate species.

    They're homo neanderthalensis, while modern man is homo sapiens sapiens. The immediate predecessor to modern humans is homo sapiens idaltu, which is minutely different than us. While a simple majority of paleontologists classify Neanderthals as a separate species, there's a significant minority that advocate them as merely another subspecies (home sapiens neanderthalensis) being more correct.

    Given that the ENTIRE Neanderthal genome differs from ours by 0.15% or less (we're about 2% different than our closest modern primate relative), I'm very surprised that the Homo-specific genome part is only 20% in common between Neanderthal and Modern Human. Particularly since it's now commonly accepted that they interbred with modern humans.

    I think the 20% commonality (if it bears out) probably reinforces the "separate species" theory more than the "distinct subspecies" theory of the Homo genus family tree.

    -Erik

    --
    There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
    1. Re:Why so low a commonality? by Karellen · · Score: 2

      Yup, given that I've read elsewhere that we share about 90% of our genome with fricking cows - all that data for building animal cells, and vertebras, and hearts, and livers, and kidneys, and mammary glands, and hair, and eyes, and nerves, and skin, etc..., having only 20% of the Neanderthal genome in common with us is setting off my bullshit alarm big time.

      --
      Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
    2. Re:Why so low a commonality? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1
      I'll take your Bull Shit Alarm

      and raise you a fan :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    3. Re:Why so low a commonality? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Would appear you are correct http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    4. Re:Why so low a commonality? by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      Neanderthals are barely a separate species.

      They're homo neanderthalensis, while modern man is homo sapiens sapiens.

      Umm...you do realize don't you that you can't prove anything just by spouting taxonomy at people? The people who consider them a separate species consider them "Homo neanderthalensis", while those who don't consider them "Homo sapiens neanderthalensis". Its right there in only the second paragraph of their wikipedia page.

      In a large part this is an argument over those two sets of names, so you can't resolve anything by just stating one like its some kind of immutable fact of the universe.

    5. Re:Why so low a commonality? by SleazyRidr · · Score: 1

      Giving credit where credit is due: http://science.slashdot.org/co...

  13. As someone with an ASD by atari2600a · · Score: 1

    I've always found the neanderthal theory of autism interesting. Like, I know there's little to no actual evidence, but I can totally see it happening!

    1. Re:As someone with an ASD by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      I've always found the neanderthal theory of autism interesting.

      Never heard of it. Do you have more info?

    2. Re:As someone with an ASD by atari2600a · · Score: 1

      Yes, but don't expect any lazors to be shooting out of any asses for science or anything. All evidence provided is anecdotal at best, but it's the kind of thing where we'll know just how crazy it is as soon as gene sequencing drops to about $100/person. http://www.rdos.net/eng/asperg...

    3. Re:As someone with an ASD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Look, that "theory" is the sole brain-child of this one Swedish guy that makes no scientific sense whatsoever. His nick is Rdos, and while it sounds nice it's basically the kind of story you'd write up as fluff for your D&D races. Nothing else.

  14. and before taoils, gills by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    tada!

  15. Black and white by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

    What I find interesting is the only group that doesn't have Neanderthal genes are Africans. It almost sounds like Caucasians got their light skin and ability to handle the cold from Neanderthals and are hybrids while Africans are the only pure humans. Ironic.

    1. Re:Black and white by tie_guy_matt · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Evidence shows that homo erectus left Africa and then evolved into homo neanderthal. Later early modern humans followed the path of their ancestors and once again migrated out of Africa. It seems that when they met what had evolved from homo erectus -- well let's just say that when the cave is a rockin you shouldn't go a knockin. So it isn't surprising that modern Africans do not have many Neanderthal genes because it doesn't look like they ever migrated back into Africa.

      Of course one definition of two groups being in the same species is if they can mate and have fertile offspring. Since we know early modern humans and neanderthals mated and had fertile offspring you could make a good argument that us, early modern humans, homo neanderthal, and homo erectus were/are all the same species.

    2. Re:Black and white by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      one definition of two groups being in the same species is if they can mate and have fertile offspring

      But that can be relative or continuous because it may be a matter of probability of a successful birth and life. The more remote the genes, the higher the risk of problems.

      For example, if the chance of viable offspring between two groups is 5%, would you still call them the "same species"? Where is the "official" cut-off point percent? "Zero" would be an easy answer, but 0.1% may be enough to effectively separate them because successful intermixing would be too rare to affect future genes.

    3. Re:Black and white by dryeo · · Score: 1

      We don't know how fertile their offspring were. There have been cases of Mules getting pregnant (only by male donkey) though very rare and there are other hybrids where depending on the sex of parents the young hybrids are more or less fertile. Also to consider is how vigorous the F2 (second generation) offspring is, sometimes breeding happens but all the offspring are very weak. In a human society during plentiful times those offspring may still survive to adulthood.
      There's also differences in what is found attractive, where 2 different species are capable of breeding but it almost never happens as the sexual cues or even timing aren't there. Probably not true for humans.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    4. Re:Black and white by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My understanding was that the inclusion of Neanderthal DNA to account for some of European traits was already known. Given the variety of genetic traits that are seen across Europe (blue or green eyes; blonde and red hair, etc), it was postulated human evolution wouldn't have had enough time to diverge that much since we left Africa to Europe.

      But if there was another hominid sub-species that had it's own genetic drift timeline prior to homo sapiens arriving, it could provide enough time for these differences to arrive and be fed back into our lineage

    5. Re:Black and white by cusco · · Score: 1

      My understanding is that English Sparrows in North America are almost unable to mate with English Sparrows from Europe because their songs and mating activity have diverged in the couple of centuries since they were introduced here. Still physically the same critter, but there is no interest between them. Not sure if they could be considered the same species any longer or not.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  16. It helps when Europeans design the tests... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be like /. designing tests for literature majors.

    1. Re:It helps when Europeans design the tests... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Europe pretty much conquered the entire world by 1900 and European culture still completely dominates the world - with no end in sight. China's current ascendency is based on emulating European culture.

  17. Only 20% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do they know this conclusively? Mightent the other 80% be identical to human genome?

  18. your mom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    20% of Neanderthal Genome Survives In Your Mom

  19. Time to repost (someone else's) old comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    From God's Roadmap:

    Beta
    Release version: Homo neanderthalensis
    Build name: Adam
    Release date: 4,569,770,000 years after cooling
    Deprecated: 4,569,971,000 years after cooling

    Stable
    Release version: Homo sapiens
    Build name: Eve
    Release date: 4,569,800,000 years after cooling
    Deprecated:
    [Sigh] Still deciding. I mean, the codebase is starting to look a bit creaky in a few places, and they're starting to tinker with it themselves (they think it's open source - hah!). Inquisitive little so-and-so's can't leave well enough alone... They've noticed the legacy code from the previous build too - ick, some cruft in there. Very tempting to trash the lot and start again using AOP. Mind you I mightn't have to lift a finger if they don't stop blowing each other to smithereens.
    [sigh] TODO: Take oort cloud inventory - look for something nice and big...

  20. Re:Coincidance? by fatphil · · Score: 1

    GIven that neanderthals were the pale-skinned ones, that's probably a good bet. We can only hope that he does all he can to prevent his own shameful neanderthal genes from being propagated to future generations.

    And thank you for following Skitt's Law.

    --
    Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  21. It's always Bowel weekend! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "bowels" have it!

    1. Re:It's always Bowel weekend! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Wheel of Unfortune

  22. Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For instance an average European has an average IQ of 105 compared to 70 in Africa. Though, the higher IQ is likely due to divergent racial evolution that occured well after the insertion of neanderthal genes...

    Or it could be a matter of education, relative stress in childhood, and diet. Or it could be a matter of a cultural upbringing that doesn't value and train people in the types of reasoning favored by IQ tests. I'd like to see a test cataloging our relative abilities to navigate vast terrain, to remember and recite oral histories, to perform pattern recognition based on ability to identify wild plants, or just a simple ability to navigate complex social situations, for example. Or it could be a function of languages, since we already know that languages can affect things like the ability to recognize and categorize colors.

    Have you ever read letters from American Civil War soldiers to their families back home? We're not talking a college education demographic by a long shot, but the eloquence and care of language in these letters is often breathtaking. Are we "dumber" than them as a populace for not being able to write like an average farm boy could 150 years ago? Or are we just trained for different uses of our brains.

    IQ is a crappy measure of genetic superiority, because it fails to account for environment & upbringing, and it's heavily biased towards one particular culture's most valued intelligence traits.

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    1. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by at_slashdot · · Score: 1

      Has anybody designed a test that measures intelligence (not necessarily standard IQ tests) in which Africans can beat or at least equal Europeans or Asians in a systematic manner? Navigation, pattern recognition, memory, that you mentioned but not something that measures memorized knowledge, something that uses abstract ideas.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
    2. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Interesting

      But IQ tests are the best measure of predicting how well one would do in IQ tests.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    3. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
      Imagine what an IQ test would look like if it was designed by Kalahari Bushman Academy of Survival.

      Q: In a overcast afternoon, as you are returning back to the camp with some tubers and eggs you have gathered, you suddenly come face to face with a hyena. What would you do?

      A: Turn around and run.

      B. Throw the tubers and eggs at the hyena to scare it away.

      C. Find a bark or a stick and hold above your head to appear taller than the hyena.

      D. Charge and attack the hyena to scare it away.

      Wondering how many of the American IQ whizzes who ace spelling bees and SATs would ace that kind of a test.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    4. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by GeoSanDiego · · Score: 0

      If a test could be devised that African's can do better on than Caucasians on average it would have. It has actually been attempted with pretty much the same results. Thus such a test remains one of the mythical creatures in liberals' bag of wishful thinking arguments. To the above poster who says IQ is a crappy measure: by all means please provide another measure then. How about actual results, such as advancements in technology? I am part African but on the end of the bell curve that can recognize reality.

    5. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by at_slashdot · · Score: 1

      See, that's not really a test of intelligence, it's a test of knowledge, it's like asking somebody from NY which metro and buses to take to reach Time Square, or even a random point in NY. How you know it doesn't measure intelligence and measures knowledge, if you give the info about hyenas to somebody they will know how the correct answer regardless of their mental capacity (to some extent). So if you tell a guy from NY that

      1. hyenas chase animals that run away
      2. hyenas are afraid of taller animals
      3. hyenas are aggressive and respond to challenges and is not a good idea to throw food at them.

      The guy who knows those facts will do just as well as a bushman. It would also be so indiscriminate that the test would not measure anything.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
    6. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Isn't it funny how, when it comes to religion or other parts of life, we have to accept what science tells us no matter how unpleasant the consequences are. It is inviolable and can't be argued with because it is objective truth. Denialists are shamed and labeled as low-IQ morons. But, as soon as race enters the issue, suddenly science cannot be right under any circumstances, and we have to ignore the evidence of our lying eyes. Isn't that strange?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    7. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Caucasians vs African? You can't use a race name and oppose it to the name of inhabitant of a continent.

      It is either 'Caucasians vs Negroid' or 'European vs African'. Favour the race name though because there are Caucasians living in Africa, and Negroid living in Europe.

      If you can't stand the PC shitstorm, then don't post in race/genetic topic. Also, I find Caucasian word offensive. Fuck off.

    8. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      See, that's not really a test of intelligence, it's a test of knowledge

      So are the usual IQ tests. They test for example mathematical knowledge (do you know enough formulas to find one to extend that series of numbers?) and language/world knowledge (which of the words doesn't fit to the others?)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    9. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      "Caucasian" is actually the word for someone living or coming from the Caucasus. Which is a terribly wrong name for most white people who neither themselves nor their ancestors have ever been even near the Caucasus. I'm not even sure it's used anywhere outside America. And in America it's only because someone decided that saying "white" is somehow bad, but using an inappropriate word to essentially say the same is not, for whatever reason.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    10. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For instance an average European has an average IQ of 105 compared to 70 in Africa. Though, the higher IQ is likely due to divergent racial evolution that occured well after the insertion of neanderthal genes...

      Or it could be a matter of education, relative stress in childhood, and diet. Or it could be a matter of a cultural upbringing that doesn't value and train people in the types of reasoning favored by IQ tests. I'd like to see a test cataloging our relative abilities to navigate vast terrain, to remember and recite oral histories, to perform pattern recognition based on ability to identify wild plants, or just a simple ability to navigate complex social situations, for example. Or it could be a function of languages, since we already know that languages can affect things like the ability to recognize and categorize colors.

      I know anecdote != fact, but... I have an alleged IQ over 150, last time I did one of those things on the internet (used to be a member of Mensa, etc.) Although of european descent, I grew up and am living in an African country where I had and have ample opportunity to navigate terrain (hiking in wilderness areas without maps, compass or GPS), identify and gather food from nature (ditto), and remember and tell all those family lore stories that have come down the generations to everyone who would listen. I'm fairly certain that most raw euro city slickers would be able to pick up on that before dying of hunger or becoming a food item, with a little guidance from older hands perhaps. It's not rocket surgery.

      However, the situation in modern Africa is that most Africans want to be part of the capitalist world economy and reap the wealth and other benefits that they perceive Westerners to have. So I posit that the (allegedly euro-centric) IQ measure is very relevant to them too. What's more, due to the nature of good old statistical normal distribution, there are Africans that are very very very bright, brighter than me, and they do well with technology, western style business, etc etc. On the other hand there are a LOT of people that just boggle the mind (well, mine at least) whenever they open their mouths or put their fingers on a keyboard. It is really hard for me personally to understand the thought processes underlying what goes for reasoning in those individuals' minds. What's worse, they are blissfully unaware of their inadequacy (Dunning-Kruger).

      Now I'm guessing that in an environment where most people have been able to survive for millennia just hunting and gathering from day to day, without climate extremes that call for more advanced shelter or food production and storage techniques (i.e. very little foresight or planning required), that same thinking still exists at a fundamental level: living from day to day, maximizing what "I" can get today from the environment irrespective of consequences to the environment's ability to again give tomorrow, or the effects on others around me but not in my closest circle, and without understanding what they need to put in to sustain that what they get out. Unfortunately for Africa and the nature of democracy, governments are all but filled by such individuals (who are put there based on how well they can use rhetoric and sway emotions of the 1SD majority), and through political connections, a lot of the upper management levels in the larger companies. I think most westerners have no idea what an IQ of 70 entails.

      Oh, you can educate all you want, I certainly do not know how to give people the ability to "see the wider picture" - they have it or they don't.

      Posted AC due to unpopular and non-PC opinions.

    11. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why you tell that to me? Tell that to the OP that was insisting about using "caucasian" in a stupid argument about worthless IQ crap.

    12. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by RoLi · · Score: 1

      Have you ever read letters from American Civil War soldiers to their families back home? We're not talking a college education demographic by a long shot, but the eloquence and care of language in these letters is often breathtaking. Are we "dumber" than them as a populace for not being able to write like an average farm boy could 150 years ago?

      Yes we are. After 5 generations of cheap oil the population lost the need to plan for hard winters. I'm sure you personally know quite a lot of people who are living from paycheck to paycheck and/or are living on welfare (which by the way is also only possible because of cheap oil). Those people just didn't exist back then because they could not survive the winters.

      But don't worry. The oil will become very expensive again soon enough.

    13. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see a test cataloging our relative abilities to navigate vast terrain, to remember and recite oral histories, to perform pattern recognition based on ability to identify wild plants, or just a simple ability to navigate complex social situations, for example.

      And the ability to strip down and reassemble an AK-47 whilst blindfolded, as that is sadly the real ruler in Africa.

    14. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by at_slashdot · · Score: 1

      Math is universal 1 + 1 = 2 in any culture no matter how the numbers look, but indeed math ability is influenced by schooling. However good IQ tests can use numbers in a smarter way, it's not actually a math test, like: what number is out of the place: 1, 2, 4, 7 (that's 2 because it's the only one that has round edges -- so you don't need much math knowledge to get this, you just need to be familiar with the concept of numbers and have flexibility in thinking to switch from one context to another -- which is what IQ test should measure anyway). And all the people have languages with words that fit in a way with other words, and yes, while we might fit birds and mammals in different categories, some other cultures might categorize animals in big and small, but that is taken into account. I don't know what's your impression about Africans, but many live in cities (40% last time I checked, not much lower than some European or Asian countries) and go to school, the bushmen who might have problems understanding the simple math concepts required by a test are actually very few.

      But granted, some of the concepts are school influenced, that's why I asked about tests that are neutral. Any way, I'm not that interested in the subject, I don't know how I got into a "debate" about it, I just posed a question and the response I got was giving me a clear example of a knowledge test, not intelligence, which was not what I asked for.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
    15. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Ozymandias_KoK · · Score: 1

      Why do you think this would be a useful measure of competence for a weapon with primary characteristics of functioning reliably with little or no maintenance and cleaning?

    16. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by qubezz · · Score: 1

      Lesbians. Vandals (used about 20 posts above). A moor by the time of Shakespeare meant black person. Language is capricious, and the correct usage is that which is canonical.

    17. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Valdrax · · Score: 1

      Isn't it funny how, when it comes to religion or other parts of life, we have to accept what science tells us no matter how unpleasant the consequences are. It is inviolable and can't be argued with because it is objective truth. Denialists are shamed and labeled as low-IQ morons. But, as soon as race enters the issue, suddenly science cannot be right under any circumstances, and we have to ignore the evidence of our lying eyes. Isn't that strange?

      The problem is that science governing differences in races (which is a pretty scientifically shaky categorization scheme to begin with considering the relative genetic diversity within races) has long been tainted with conclusions driving the "research." Frankly, most so-called "science" surrounding race is pretty much the opposite of science. We're not closing our eyes to the truth on it, we're just looking beneath the surface.

      It's a lot like what you see when people try to wrap a veneer of science around creationism or against global warming or in favor of the health of smoking or the efficacy of homeopathy. Small sample groups, tests that aren't comprehensive, taking small flaws in the opposition position and building castles in the sky around it (often *decades* after mainstream science has accounted for the issue and moved on), etc.

      It is *possible* that there are genetic differences between African populations and Eurasian populations that affect general intelligence, but IQ tests are an absolutely terrible way of identifying them if they do exist, and most of the theories explaining them like the "cold weather" theory are heavily wrapped up in notions of racial superiority that have no place in science and are frequently adopted by people who have no interest in any science except that which can be used to justify their own beliefs.

      --
      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    18. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Has anybody designed a test that measures intelligence (not necessarily standard IQ tests) in which Africans can beat or at least equal Europeans or Asians in a systematic manner? Navigation, pattern recognition, memory, that you mentioned but not something that measures memorized knowledge, something that uses abstract ideas.

      The Chitling test is alleged by some to do it.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    19. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Valdrax · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you personally know quite a lot of people who are living from paycheck to paycheck and/or are living on welfare (which by the way is also only possible because of cheap oil). Those people just didn't exist back then because they could not survive the winters.

      You... pretty much don't know anything about the labor conditions surrounding the industrial revolution, do you? Living paycheck to paycheck is an improvement on what people in the 19th century had to deal with. Try being unable to feed your children, even with them working 60+ hrs a week. Consider that they had debtor's prisons back then. You think these people had better finances than people today? We at least have a minimum wage.

      Also, you might want to read up on the effects of poverty and deprivation on decision making. In many cases, it's poverty that causes lower intelligence, not purely vice versa.

      --
      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    20. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Consider that the race you are calling "White" ranges from pasty white pale skin that could pass for albinoism to much darker the most "Blacks" Hindus, the White/Black doesn't work well either.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    21. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by cusco · · Score: 1

      "White" is inappropriate, because the only peoples that I can think of that are actually white are the Scandinavians and the Brits. My heritage is mostly French and German, but I tan darker than my co-irker who is supposedly "black". And then you get into the whole foolishness of "White Hispanic" when the people in question might not have any Spanish (or other European) genetic heritage at all and still be lighter skinned than the average resident of Salamanca.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    22. Re:Hoo boy, scientific racism again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yes it is also "possible" that at least one Liberian student will pass math this year..

  23. A full 15% of it.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A full 15% of the 20% is in Ozzy Osbourne's family tree.

  24. As far as Uncle Neander is concerned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Papa was a rolling stone.

  25. Human-specific part is 20% common... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think they're referring to the section of our DNA which is specific to the Homo genus.

    That is, DNA for the Homo genus is probably about 99.5% or more in common, across all species of Homo. You can tell where the Homo DNA starts by comparing it to other members of the subfamily Homininae, and looking for differences.

    So, in the Homo-specific portions of our DNA, TFA is claiming that 20% or so is common to modern humans and Neanderthals. That still seems low, given the interbreeding of Neanderthal and Modern Humans, and the fact we both share a direct common ancestor.

  26. relationship of neanderthal genes and IQ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Africans have no neanderthal DNA while Northern Europeans and East Asians have the most...trouble in paradise, comrade?

  27. Party "Animal" by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For a good long time, anatomically modern humans didn't make cave paintings and jewelry either, at least not often enough to be detected. Nobody knows what triggered the use of art in humans.

    The best theory I've heard is it's not that humans became smarter, but rather more social. Neanderthal brains were big if not bigger than ours, so they were potentially pretty smart. However, they may have been relatively anti-social.

    The most successful humans were probably those who used trade to get the resources their area lacked. For example, your area may have good arrow-head rocks, but not a lot of prey during the dry season. If you encounter another tribe whose area has a lot of prey but poor rocks, you can trade rocks for meat, and both groups benefit and give birth to more traders instead of making war with neighbors.

    Normally mammals battle neighboring groups because they compete with resources, so trade requires a different mentality: socializing with strangers. It may have taken several thousands of years to evolve this tendency. (Slashdotters are still working on it :-)

    Neanderthals may just have been slower to take advantage of trade. This is possibly because the human population was greater, magnifying the benefits of trade.

    Cave paintings and jewelry may have been an early form of advertising of your goods and services, and serving as social gestures of good will.

    1. Re:Party "Animal" by ebno-10db · · Score: 2

      Neanderthal brains were big if not bigger ... so they were potentially pretty smart. However, they may have been relatively anti-social.

      Now I know who programmers and engineers descended from.

    2. Re:Party "Animal" by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      I wonder if they'll trace the pizza and Mt. Dew gene back them also. Lab tests already show that the great apes like porn also.

    3. Re:Party "Animal" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For example, your area may have good arrow-head rocks, but not a lot of prey during the dry season. If you encounter another tribe whose area has a lot of prey but poor rocks, you can trade rocks for meat, and both groups benefit and give birth to more traders instead of making war with neighbors.

      The right way would be to pay them a visit, bringing Grok and some rocks. Then you casually remark how Grok really likes playing with his rocks, almost as much as he likes eating meat. Remind them that rocks are pretty hard and sometimes people get hurt. Fortunately you just happen to be selling rock insurance policies and could save them a lot of pain for just, let's say, 50% of their meat.

    4. Re:Party "Animal" by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      Nobody knows what triggered the use of art in humans. ...

      I'm going with beer. ;)

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    5. Re:Party "Animal" by morkk · · Score: 2

      Cave paintings [...] may have been an early form of advertising of your goods and services

      Hardly - the caves that were decorated are all deep, deep underground and very hard to get to. I think the art was a plea to the gods to send more animals because, between them, the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons had wiped them out, especially the mega-fauna.

    6. Re:Party "Animal" by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hardly - the caves that were decorated are all deep, deep underground and very hard to get to

      We perhaps are only seeing the art that is in hard-to-get-to caves precisely because it is hard to get to. Most surface art would be wiped out by weather or vandals. Thus, we are probably not seeing an accurate representation of original locations.

    7. Re:Party "Animal" by some+old+guy · · Score: 1

      Proof that evolution favors success.

      --
      Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
    8. Re:Party "Animal" by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      anatomically modern humans didn't make cave paintings and jewelry either
      Neanderthales did cave paintings and crafted jewelry ... especially Spain and south France is full with caves that where painted by Neanderthales.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    9. Re:Party "Animal" by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Interesting that all those caves are in our days easy to reach from the surface.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    10. Re:Party "Animal" by qubezz · · Score: 1

      Neanderthal brains were big if not bigger than ours, so they were potentially pretty smart. However, they may have been relatively anti-social.

      The most successful humans were probably those who used trade to get the resources their area lacked...

      Hypothesis: The most successful humans were those that were able to raise an army and slaughter those individualistic free-thinking neanderthals. Evidence: recorded human history.

    11. Re:Party "Animal" by Reziac · · Score: 1

      "Cave paintings and jewelry may have been an early form of advertising of your goods and services,"

      That's a good point. Public art historically tends to fall into two basic sorts -- graffiti, and advertising.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  28. Monkey Laws and Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don’t expect this “science” to sneak its way into the classrooms here in the South. Our Lord and Savior made it very clear there is no way we evolved from these savages. Tennessee has passed the Monkey Law legislation which ensures teachers can challenge these so-called scientists and their twisted research funded by the liberals in Washington. Read about how we’re keep Christ in the Classroom at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/04/pulpit-in-classroom-biblical-agenda-in.html

  29. Didn't exist. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There were no neanderthals. Just ancient people who lived a lot longer so their bones look different. God created everything 6000 years ago. Watch Kent Hovinds videos.

  30. Some of the genes influence fertility skin pigment by flopsquad · · Score: 1

    ...which is why, son, your dink
    is neanderthal pink.
    --flop

    --
    Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
  31. Or you could have drawn a better conclusion by rea by celtic_hackr · · Score: 1

    The article clearly indicates that the male offspring of Human-Neanderthal breedings might have had lower fertility or been sterile (because modern humans share very few sperm producing genes from Neanderthals). Hence it is far more likely that, Neanderthal males simply bred themselves out of existence by mating with human females, and the Neanderthalish male offispring of male Human to female Neanderthal matings never went anywhere. Thus the decreasing male Neanderthal ratio would force further matings of Neanderthal females with human males. Thus resulting in an eventual complete loss of male Neanderthals, and ever decreasing purity of Neanderthal females. Mystery solved.

  32. At least 20% by russotto · · Score: 3, Funny

    In fact, 20% survive in Arnold Schwarzenegger alone. Add the National Football League, WWE Wrestling, and the Texas State Board of Education, and you've probably got well above 90%.

    1. Re:At least 20% by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Modus Upus :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  33. Moot point by PPH · · Score: 1

    We all descended from aliens anyway.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  34. military origins... by schlachter · · Score: 2

    actually i think it was designed to predict how well someone would do in the military, as the army were the originators of these tests and they used them when recruiting and tasking soldiers.

    --
    My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
    1. Re:military origins... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Actually the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale was published in 1916, the Army Alpha/Beta test was developed in 1917-1918, the present Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) in 1968.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  35. Zog not understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    marks on glowing paper make Zog sad
    Zog proud of thumbs
    basement boys misunderstand Zog
    there goes dinner Zog run now

  36. 20% is too little for India by nikkipolya · · Score: 1

    In India I think it's 80%. With a population of 1.25 Billion who have an avg IQ of 79, it just can't be 20%.

  37. Actually neanderthals had larger brains. by bussdriver · · Score: 1

    Neanderthals were most probably smarter. The theory is that they lived in small groups while our migrating ancestors lived in packs/tribes in larger numbers and until there was proof many people thought that they died off and were probably overrun. It was controversial to claim they bred until there was proof (but it's rather obvious if you think about it, people will screw anything - there is no way they wouldn't; no religion to stop them.)

    India has a lot of poor uneducated people. If you lived and grew up like many of them did you'd be no smarter on a standardized IQ test.

  38. Nobody? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BBC created an excellent documentary on neanderthals. They mature very quickly and younger aged neanderthals are fully developed mentally at a young age. They also retain aspects of youth for longer as a result.

  39. My neighbor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am sure my neighbor has more than 90% Neanderthal genome. Ironically he makes the same claim. Therefore it is obviously obvious that we must have a common neighbor that I am unaware of...

  40. You bloody neanderthal! by fish_sauce · · Score: 1

    Ah. Now that neanderthal comment makes sense. I've been getting from time to time.

  41. From the summary it sounds like nonsense by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Considering that humans and chimps have over 95% identical genes, and the same is true for humans and gorillas and chims and gorillas I would assume neanderthals and modern humans have also about 95% - 99% common genes.

    Where does this stupid 20% come from?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  42. Hmmm by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

    This would seem contrary to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  43. Only 20% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So were neanderthals not really human at all? I mean we share well over 90% of our DNA with monkeys, so where is this 20% figure for neanderthals coming from? Do they mean 20% of the 1% of DNA that is unique to humans?

  44. There's no racist like a non-racist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You insult my countrymen.. ok so they don't get to university here. Now go play..

  45. Neanderthals still exist by PJ6 · · Score: 1

    I saw one, mopping the floor in building 2 at MIT in 1994. I shit you not.