Carrot-Top Say “Ugh!”
Major Neanderthal news:
WASHINGTON - Carrot-top say “Ugh!”
Some Neanderthals may have been as red-headed and fair skinned as Lucille Ball, a DNA study of ancient bones has found.
Researchers found a genetic mutation in two individuals that can affect skin and hair pigmentation, they reported in Thursday’s online issue of the journal Science.
The mutation reduces the function of a gene known as MC1R. In modern humans, a slightly different mutation results in red hair and fair skin, according to the team led by Holger Roempler of Harvard University and the University of Leipzig, Germany.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia from about 400,000 years ago to 24,000 years ago. They were replaced by early modern humans. Researchers have long debated whether the two groups mixed together, though most doubt it.
Scientists are working to analyze Neanderthal DNA - the blueprint of life - taken from ancient remains. They hope it will help them better understand these ancient people. Last year, researchers found Neanderthals had the gene known to influence speech in modern humans.
The two fossils studied in the hair-color research were found in Italy and Spain.
This raises significant issues for museums, scientific journals, textbooks, etc., which have always portrayed Neanderthals as swarthy. Not least the question of whether they’ve been expressing a not-particularly subtle anti-swarthist agenda. You know, swarthy = low-browed, primitive. Also, I’d suggest, raises the question of whether further genetic study might find evidence of blonde Neanderthals. In the quest to understand Neanderthal society, new issues emerge. Were red-headed Neanderthals perceived as hot-tempered? Blonde ones … pereceived as more attractive or weird freaks? Subject to dumb blonde Neanderthal jokes? Or did they have more fun?
Also raises new advertising and artistic possiblities. Neanderthal Irish Spring TV commercials, for example. Cocoa Pebbles and Lucky Charms collaboration … Lucky Pebbles, something like that … though the Kraft-General Mills divide is probably a more yawning chasm than the human-Neanderthal one . These guys like they may be ahead of the curve. Check out the pictures. They had a red-headed one in there. Here’s another look at what a carrot-topped Neanderthal might look like.
Topics: Neanderthals
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:32 am on Friday, October 26, 2007
5 Responses to “Carrot-Top Say “Ugh!””
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October 26th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Geez! Give a person warning, will you, before posting pictures like that! (I refer to Carrot Top).
October 26th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Oh geez. As though I haven’t had enough problems being a red-head. It was bad enough to listen to little chants like “I’d rather be dead than read on the head” as a child.
‘Course, I always thought Carrot Top was a bit of a Neanderthal.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Wouldn’t Wilma Flinstone have been a better example?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Red hair and polydactylism were both believed to be traits of the Nephalim, if memory serves….
October 26th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I always figured that Neandertals were pale skinned and blonde, living in the cold of Ice Age Europe as they did. They’d need to absorb sunlight which would be scarce, as in northern climes today.