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Autoimmune disorders were passed on by archaic Hominin species that included Neanderthal and Denisovan. There are some implications to Endogamy, a practice still employed by certain social groups.
Many species co-existed with Homo sapiens in the Late Pleistocene. Through morphological and palaeo-genomic analysis, four archaic hominins have been proven to have interbred with modern humans. Findings show that modern humans of Eurasian origin share DNA with Neanderthals. Additionally, Melanesians, share archaic haplotypes with Neanderthals but also Denisovans and an unknown group, “Species X”, whilst African populations share many with an archaic group of H. sapiens. Introgressed haplotypes of archaic origin are located within many coding sections of DNA, some at curiously high frequencies within certain populations. This can be explained through positive selective pressure, indicating that interbreeding was often adaptive. However, interbreeding also had some detrimental impacts on modern humans (e.g. infertility), which is likely a reason why there is not a greater number of archaic lineages present in modern DNA. Genetic data allows mapping of the date, location and frequency of admixture events. This contextualisation indicates that - to some extent - an assimilation model is the best fit for the “extinction” of Late Pleistocene hominin species. Therefore, it could be argued that these species are not truly extinct, and instead they live on within modern humans, as nearly 10% of some modern genomes being made up of introgressed sequences. Evidence of introgression suggests it is highly probable that admixture has been a critical dynamic in the process hominin evolution, ever since the origin of our lineage. This has numerous implications on the dynamics of interactions between hominin groups, but also on the designation of many hominin populations as species in their own right.
Andrew Planet, 2019
This piece targets two major periods of notable hominin technological development, the Lower Paleolithic to Middle Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic to Upper Paleolithic, both fast paced technological transitions for which there is evidence for the two at the continental crossroads of The Levant. This might be no coincidence because of the Levant being a geographical hominin expansion route bottleneck and therefore a locale for genomically and technologically differentiated populations to meet and mingle. The aim here is to provide substantive argumentation that technological accelerated sophistication has occurred when different technocomplexes from genomically differentiated populations have merged and how that has resulted in feedback evolutionary changes in the Hominin Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA)1 through memetic positive selection of amalgamated technologically extended phenotypes which bestowed improved fitness and prompted further evolutionary and technological development.
Sapiens Magazine , 2020
Many scientists now suspect that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals met and mingled their genes multiple times. Geneticists have documented how Neanderthal genes survive today among modern humans, evidence of some earlier instances of interbreeding.
Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 2006
The Middle Pleistocene (~721-126 thousand-years-ago) is one of the most complex and unclear periods with regards to the evolutionary history of genus Homo. Remains from Africa, Europe, and sometimes Asia are assigned to “Homo heidelbergensis”: a species theoretically defined around the ~600,000-year-old Mauer mandible. However, many specimens do not align closely with the holotype, and the apparently-broad polymorphism during this period, combined with the emergence of modern human, Neanderthal, and Denisovan lineages have made the designation H. heidelbergensis extremely controversial. A geometric-morphometric analysis of posterior dental crowns was undertaken, with the aim of quantifying and assessing levels of intra-specific shape variability within H. heidelbergensis in comparison with other taxa. The results showed that Middle Pleistocene specimens generally exhibited larger inter-individual shape variation than other hominin species and may include several palaeodemes, providing further support to the illegitimacy of H. heidelbergensis. However, it may not necessarily be concluded from this study that the specimens represent more than one broad, over-arching species; at least, within this sample of mostly-European specimens. Alternatively, it may provide support for broad intra-taxic variability, and leaves the status of H. heidelbergensis still to be clarified. Though many interpretations of H. heidelbergensis are found in palaeoanthropological literature, it may not necessarily be inaccurate as a cross-continental species lasting from ~700kya until speciation events, ~250kya. The addition of Afro-Eurasian specimens would provide a fairer assessment of H. heidelbergensis as a cross-continental taxon. Furthermore, this study adds to the lack of clarity with regards to acceptable levels of polymorphism within the genus Homo.
Although Neanderthals live on in the DNA of Eurasians, it is clear that the culture and lifestyle of the European Neanderthals is no more. Following Engels, it is suggested that a cultural difference - the practice of endogamy, as opposed to the current human practice of exogamy - may have contributed to their disappearance as a people
Scientia et Fides
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