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Neanderthals were assimilated by humans because they had an immune system that was better adapted to the pathogens in the areas they lived in, i.e.: Europe. If
by 29athrowaway 6y ago
Neanderthals were assimilated by humans because they had an immune system that was better adapted to the pathogens in the areas they lived in, i.e.: Europe.
If you were an anatomically modern human from Africa, and you are migrating to Europe (neanderthal territory), if you bred with neanderthals, your offspring had a higher chance of survival due to a better adapted immune system.
But once those hybrids were everywhere, the ones with fewer neanderthal variants would prevail, eventually leaving out only the variants related to immune system.
- koheripbal 6y agoThis theory is impossible to provide evidence for.
- 29athrowaway 6y agoThe neanderthal genome has been sequenced. The human genome has also been sequenced. The rest is simply diffing.
- koheripbal 6y agoI can't tell if this is a sarcastic comment or not because it's so so unrealistic to think that a sequenced DNA would tell you anything about the robustness of an immune system.
- roywiggins 6y agoYou could perhaps look into whether the DNA that we derive from Neanderthals is more likely than you'd expect to code for immune system functionality.
- adolph 6y agoYou may David Reich’s book “Who We Are and How We Got Here” interesting. One of the assertions is that while modern Europeans have some Neanderthal genes, the Neanderthal population is one from Asia, not Europe. I “read” it by checking the audiobook out from the library and found it absorbing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_We_Are_and_How_We_Got_Here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_We_Are_and_How_We_Got_Here The assertion that some modern humans have traits tied back to ancient interbreeding of distinct populations is backed by research like below with Denisovans. At least one archaic trait has clear benefits in contemporary humans. Last year (2014), Nielsen’s team reported that the Denisovan-like version of a gene called EPAS1 helps modern Tibetans to cope with life at altitudes of 4,000 metres, by preventing their blood from thickening. https://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-had-outsize-effect-on-human-biology-1.18086 https://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-had-outsize-effect-...