Ancient humans interbred with Neanderthals and mystery species in ‘Lord of the Rings’ world

[warrior1]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/20/ancient-humans-interbred-with-neanderthals-and-mystery-species-in-lord-of-the-rings-world/

Ancient humans interbred with Neanderthals, Denisovans and a mystery species that may have originated in Africa and migrated to Asia, paleontologists said this week.

Improved genome sequencing from two extinct human relatives suggests the forerunners to modern humans intermingled with one another more extensively than was previously known.

Ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a different archaic human group, the Denisovans, were presented Monday at the Royal Society in London, where researchers said they’d found evidence to suggest rampant interbreeding among members of ancient human-like groups more than 30,000 years ago in Europe and Asia – including an unknown human ancestor.

“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” said Mark Thomas, evolutionary geneticist at University College London.

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[dipsydoodle]

1. Gollum too ?

[IrishAyes]

5. The story/movie proved slightly embarrassing for me,

since my favorite term of endearment for people I love was always 'Precious'.

I had to stop saying that!

[CrispyQ]

10. In "Contact," the book, the father calls his daughter Precious

& eventually it gets shortened to Presh.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

2. Fascinating...

...analogy!

[JaneyVee]

3. Must've been crazy living during a period of such various human species.

[IrishAyes]

4. Cool. I'd never even heard of Denisovans before, and I love to read anything about ancient humans.

I had read that we probably get a lot of our sturdiness from the Neanderthals, and that they seem to have predated humans in the use of tools and who knows how much else. Regarding the Neanderthal DNA in humans, however, I have to wonder; since I've always enjoyed spectacular health even now into my old age (admittedly slowing down a bit), how much Neanderthal blood do I have in me????

Oh well, I've surely been called a lot worse names than that!

[randome]

6. Contemporary humans still do. Example: Mary Matalin and James Carville.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post..[/center][/font][hr]

[Fumesucker]

7. Yeah, but which one is the H Sap?

[winter is coming]

9. Neither. Trick question. n/t

[wandy]

8. Finally the answer to a question that has been bugging for a while..............

But those genome sequences were of low quality and full of gaps and errors.

No bout a doubt it.
Why else would anybody become a Teapublican.

[L0oniX]

11. ...and that's why repukes exist today.

[bhikkhu]

12. Diversity leads to disease resistance

and as there was likely no better conception of what caused disease then than there was in the middle ages, and similar rates of endemic disease, a habit of intermarriage between different groups (which combines the immune systems of both) may have been the trick to fitness and survival.

"1491" is one book that got into that very briefly, and I'm still waiting for a good long-view of it to come out.