Mirror mirror on the wall: who has the reddest hair of all? Despite the comical artwork, serious science suggests some Neanderthals were ginger - but the genes behind it are different from those of modern redheads.
Credit: Michael Hofreiter and Kurt Fiusterweier/MPG EVA
CHICAGO: Some of our prehistoric Neanderthal relatives probably had red hair and fair complexions, much like modern-day people of Celtic origin.
The finding comes from the first such analysis of DNA evidence taken from Neanderthal fossils recovered from El Sidron in northern Spain and Monti Lessini, Italy.
An analysis of the DNA revealed the ancient hominids carried a mutation in the MC1R gene that codes for a protein involved in the production of melanin – a substance that gives skin its colour and also protects it against ultraviolet light.
Ginger mutation
In modern humans, primarily of European descent, mutations in the MC1R gene are thought to be responsible for red hair and pale skin by dampening the activity of the protein.
The mutation observed in the Neanderthal genes was different from the one documented in humans, but when scientists inserted the Neanderthal gene into cells in a test tube, it seemed to have the same effect on melatonin production as the modern human genes, according to the study published in the U.S. journal Science.
The genetic analysis doesn't seal the deal, but since the fossil record of Neanderthals does not include any samples of skin or hair, it is the best guide available, said Michael Hofreiter, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Hofreiter said the number of red-headed Neanderthals was probably pretty small, possibly just one per cent of the population and might have popped up in any part of Europe or Asia that the ancient hominids had settled.
Vitamin D link
The news did not come as a surprise to one leading scholar of Neanderthal evolution and biology.
"The stereotype of primitive peoples is that they are dark skinned, but some palaeontologists have been speculating for 20 years that some Neanderthals must have been pale skinned because they lived in northern Europe," said Erik Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. "Light skin is adaptive at higher altitudes because it allows more UVB radiation to penetrate the skin and that promotes Vitamin D synthesis."
Neanderthals, whose ancestors diverged from that of modern humans about 300,000 years ago, colonised Europe and parts of Asia, dominating Europe until about 30,000 years ago.
The study suggests that the genes that confer pale skin and red hair evolved separately in humans and our closest extinct relatives.
Red-haired Neanderthal Resemblance to Celtic People in Question
Suddenly depictions of Neanderthals have become more modern human-like in popular literature, whereas in the past computer extrapolations of their appearance based on their skeletal remains, including skulls extrapolations of their complete skulls from secured skull pieces, indicate they were closer in skull and facial appearance to a large-skulled ape. As such, their bodies may have been covered with a comparatively thick coat of hair and they may have just as well resembled in hair color and body hair orangutans, which are exclusive red haired (actually orange haired) and reddish-brown haired. Also, Celtic people are not uniquely red haired among Europeans and most Celtic people do not have red hair but in the majority come in the full variety of hair colors for European people. Red hair also is common among Hungarians and occurs significantly among Scandinavians, Russians, Germans, French, Dutch, Sicilians and Spaniards as well as among the people of Ireland and the United Kingdom, commonly associated with Celtic culture and ethnicity. If Neanderthals looked like apes in the face and had an ape-like coat of body hair, it is unlikely humans of any kind would have had a sexual attraction for any of them any more than we would have for a chimpanzee (pale or dark skinned), bonobo, gorilla, orangutan, gibbon or monkey -- more likely we would have had an aesthetic aversion for them with regard to sex. As former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan once said in effect: "Don't get swept away with 'irrational exuberance'," in our excitement and enthusiasm or fantasizing (some have always wanted and may yearn to be genetically different from black Africans, with a basis to argue cognitively better). We must maintain our scientific composure and intellectually cold objectivity.
how absurd
fascinatingly insane conclusions
Red hair
Could there have been something consistent about the environment of orangutans, red haired neanderthals and red haired humans? Temperature or light intensity or some other factor or factors.
Cardinals, red birds, red foxes, red hefers
why would the genes responsible for red hair in neanderthals be different from the red hair genes of homo-sapiens? or for any other animal for that matter?