'Redheads are Neanderthals'
2001-04-17 08:36
London - Red hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals, according to a new study by British scientists.
Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine
in Oxford were quoted by The Times as saying the so-called
"ginger gene" which gives people red hair, fair skin and freckles
could be up to 100 000 years old.
They claim that their discovery points to the gene having
originated in Neanderthal man who lived in Europe for 200 000 years before Homo sapien settlers, the ancestors of modern man, arrived from Africa about 40 000 years ago.
Rosalind Harding, the research team leader, told The Times: "The
gene is certainly older than 50 000 years and it could be as old as 100 000 years.
"An explanation is that it comes from Neanderthals." It is
estimated that at least 10 percent of Scots have red hair and a
further 40 percent carry the gene responsible, which could account for their once fearsome reputation as fighters.
Neanderthals have been characterised as migrant hunters and violent cannibals who probably ate most of their meat raw. They were taller and stockier than Homo sapiens, but with shorter limbs, bigger faces and noses, receding chins and low foreheads.
The two species overlapped for a period of time and the Oxford
research appears to suggests that they must have successfully
interbred for the "ginger gene" to survive. Neanderthals became
extinct about 28 000 years ago, the last dying out in southern
Spain and southwest France. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA