Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Some Neanderthals were probably redheads, a DNA study has shown. Writing in Science journal, a team of researchers extracted DNA from remains of two Neanderthals and retrieved part of an important gene called MC1R. In modern people, a change - or mutation - in this gene causes red hair, but, until now, no one knew what hair colour our extinct relatives had. By analysing a version of the gene in Neanderthals, scientists found that they also have sported fiery locks. "We found a variant of MC1R in Neanderthals which is not present in modern humans, but which causes an effect on the hair similar to that seen in modern redheads," said lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, assistant professor in genetics at the University of Barcelona. Though once thought to have been our ancestors, the Neanderthals are now considered by many to be an evolutionary dead end. They appear in the fossil record about 400,000 years ago and, at their peak, these squat, physically powerful hunters dominated a wide range spanning Britain and Iberia in the west, Israel in the south and Siberia in the east. Our own species, Homo sapiens, evolved in Africa, and displaced the Neanderthals after entering Europe about 40,000 years ago. The last known evidence of Neanderthals comes from Gibraltar and is dated to between 28,000 and 24,000 years ago. Selective pressure: Until relatively recently, scientists could turn only to fossils in order to learn what Neanderthals were like. But recent pioneering work has allowed scientists to study DNA from their bones.
In Neanderthals, there was probably the whole range of hair colour we see today in modern European populations, from dark to blond right through to red Dr Carles Lalueza-Fox Genetics could shed light on aspects of Neanderthal biology that are not preserved in fossils. These include external appearance - such as hair, skin and eye colour - cell chemistry and perhaps even cognitive ability. This will help scientists address key questions, such as why we inherited the Earth and not them.
