Most people have heard about our connection to our Neanderthal ancestors. Science has proven that indeed we have evolved from another race of humans quite different but yet in many ways, like us. Science says it all began with our interbreeding, that once humans, as we know us to be, and the Neanderthal race existed together, we breeded and began to share some traits we know today.
Research shows that our Neanderthal mixing of breeds, has contributed to some of our modern diseases and immunities today. Now research shows that we inherited many things from our ancient family, like color, features, sleep patterns, our moods, and our urge to smoke or to not smoke. We are more intertwined than even researchers thought and the new studies have given us another reason on which to blame some of our negative traits.
Janet Kelso and Max Planck, two researchers from the Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, says that their research team was more interested in studying our connection to the Neanderthal race that was unrelated to diseases, instead they were looking to compare traits that appear to be ordinary, everyday behavior. Many studies before this one have discovered DNA traits between the two races to be similar but have not been sure of the “whys”. Now this study brings cross breeding into the picture, which means that we share much more with the Neanderthal race than was reported before.
Kelso says, we can now prove that hair color, skin tone, and even how quickly a person will tan, all comes from our mixing with this ancient race. Kelso and Planck’s team also discovered that there are certain Neanderthals that connect with lighter skinned people and others with darker skinned people of today. They found the same evidence for hair color, lighter shades and darker tones were all affected by our connection with the Neanderthal race.
Our moods, sleeping patterns, ability to deal with weather patterns, color, skin tone, and body clocks, are the cause of late arriving Africans to Eurasia. Other Neanderthals had been there for thousands of years and were adjusted to the area, while late comers from Africa had to adjust in many ways including, skin tone and moods, also their sleeping habits would need to change to survive. All of these traits, including our circadian rythms, are affected by sunlight exposure or the lack thereof, Kelso and Planck’s research indicates.
So when there is a so-called negative trait that people are talking about concerning your daily habits, just blame it on the Neanderthals, even though it is not only negative traits for which they are given credit.
Source: Science Daily