Ian Sample “Neanderthals live on in DNA of humans” http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/06/neanderthals-dna-humans-genome
ネアンデルタール人と私たちホモ・サピエンス（現生人類）との浅からぬ関係。Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology*1のSvante Pääboのティームの研究による；
Most people living outside Africa can trace up to 4% of their DNA to a Neanderthal origin, a consequence of interbreeding between the two groups after the great migration from the contintent(sic.).Anthropologists have long speculated that early humans may have mated with Neanderthals, but the latest study provides the strongest evidence so far, suggesting that such encounters took place around 60,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East.
Small, pioneering groups of modern humans began to leave Africa 80,000 years ago and reached land occupied by the Neanderthals as they spread into Eurasia. The two may have lived alongside each other in small groups until the Neanderthals died out 30,000 years ago.
この研究によれば、ヨーロッパ人や亜細亜人のDNAの１〜４％はネアンデルタール人に由来するものだということになる。また、アフリカ大陸から移動しなかった人の子孫はより〈純粋〉なホモ・サピエンスだということになるのか。
To see how similar the Neanderthal was to modern humans, the team compared the ancient DNA with the genomes of five people from France, China, southern Africa, western Africa and Papua New Guinea. The study is the first to attempt a whole-genome comparison between Neanderthals and modern humans.The researchers found that modern humans and Neanderthals shared 99.7% of their DNA, which was inherited from a common ancestor 400,000 years ago. Further analysis revealed that Neanderthals were more closely related to modern humans who left Africa than to the descendants of those who stayed. Between 1% and 4% of the DNA in modern Europeans, Asians and those as far afield as Papua New Guinea, was inherited from Neanderthals.
そういえば、ネアンデルタール人差別で石原慎太郎の差別発言*2に対抗しようとした記事があったな*3。
ネアンデルタール人とホモ・サピエンスの関係については、石弘之、安田喜憲、湯浅赳男『環境と文明の世界史』という鼎談本の中で、環境に優しいネアンデルタール人／環境を破壊しまくるホモ・サピエンスみたいな議論が展開されているのだが（p.34ff.）、これってどうなんでしょうか。
環境と文明の世界史―人類史20万年の興亡を環境史から学ぶ (新書y)
- 作者: 石弘之,湯浅赳男,安田喜憲
- 出版社/メーカー: 洋泉社
- 発売日: 2001/05
- メディア: 新書
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