When different species share more than just their habitat
- antropocestors
- 1 oct 2015
- 2 Min. de lectura
The relationship between different species of the Homo genus has been investigated for a long time, but finding real proof has not been easy at all.
The Homo neanderthalensis and the Homo sapiens lived together in Europe, Middle East and the Mediterranean for 5000 years as much and a debate was presented whether interbreeding happened during that coexistence. Until modern DNA analyses were presented this idea was just a hypothesis, but in the last years the truth has been revealed: Modern humans and Neanderthals had sex and nowadays many human groups carry Neanderthal genetic information. This relation can be found in humans with ancestors who lived in the mentioned areas and these genes still have an effect on modern humans.
The news we present today explains the development of the investigations about Neanderthal genes in our species and the advantages or disadvantages they present in the people living today.
First of all it must be said that the Neanderthal ancestry of our genome is less than 5% so it does not have a huge impact having it or not. However genetic analyses on different people have shown that the interbreeding may have helped humans to cope with new natural environments. For example:
Changes in the body to reduce body heat loss or grow thicker hair in northern areas.
Resistance to diseases not found in Africa helping in an improved immune system.
Improved blood characteristics to live in high-altitude areas.
On the other hand negative aspects also appeared due to this genetic exchange, which caused problems on our species, including the following:
Increased possibilities of suffering osteoporosis, blood coagulation problems and nicotine addiction.
Higher rate of allergies.
This shows as how our coexistence with Neanderthals may have changed our species, but there is still a lot of research to be done in order to understand this completely.
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