UKC

I know it would take a while, and be unethical and immoral, but as many people have 1-4% of the genome originating from neanderthals would it be possible to selectively breed neanderthals back into existence?

In reply to nastyned:

I'm not sure we need to...

In reply to nastyned:

UKIP are making great strides in this area. Or at least the ones that cry Politically Correct excuses when their moron gene is spotted.

In reply to The Lemming:

Seems a little harsh on Neanderthals, they might have been lefties!

In reply to The Norris:

Primitive communists surely. 

In reply to nastyned:

I'm doing my best.

In reply to nastyned:

Imagine what a Neanderthals special cousin would be like! We don’t need that.

In reply to Dave the Rave:

Go to the Forest of Dean & meet some of the natives, you won’t be left imagining for long. 

In reply to Fozzy:

Think there's a satellite population in Essex too. Bridges are a good place to find them lurking under. 

In reply to nastyned:Theres some that still actually exist,theres one in my gym, 6ft 7 and twenty three stone, just dare ask him if hes finished with the smith machine.

In reply to nastyned:

Unlikely to be possible.  Because of the way population genetics works over those sorts of time-scales, that 1-4% will not be randomly sampled from the neanderthal genome.  Some portions of the genome will be common, and some will be missing entirely. 

This paper suggests that only 20% of an entire neanderthal genome has survived to the present-day.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/343/6174/1017

In reply to MarkJH:

Thanks! I had a feeling that various genes would have been selected out. 

In reply to nastyned:

The good ones, it would sometimes seem.

In reply to Fozzy:

No joke but if ypu drive round Middleton in Leeds the true locals stand out a mile, big sloping forehead and a protruding jaw. To be fair though the typical family tree in Middleton is a telegraph pole. 

In reply to Dax H:

Sounds similar to the Ciderford gene puddle. Family trees in a straight line, and Duelling Banjos traditionally played at weddings. 

I’m sure they’d say the same about us across the border in Herefordshire though (if they weren’t scared of electricity & the finger webbing getting in the way of efficient typing). 

In reply to Fozzy:

Don't mention the bear. 

In reply to nastyned:

We already did:

www.ukclimbing.com/forums/gear/decathlon_climbing_ropes-703166?v=1#x8975520

In reply to David Alcock:

But who killed it?!

In reply to nastyned:

One thing that puzzles me. How did they die out? Our ancestors must have bred with them. So did they just slowly die out, did we evolve and merge, or did we kill them? A mixture? Why were we more successful? 

In reply to captain paranoia:

Largest brain of any known hominid. I'd say there is a current emergency requirement.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

The origins of technological civilisation are all within the geographic range of the Neanderthal. 

In reply to Jim Fraser:

Largest brain cavity, yes. Hard to tell if that was functionally 'bigger'.

That wasn't my point, though. My point was that they are already among us...

In reply to nastyned:

It's already been done - Donald Trump.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

Definitely no expert, but my sketchy understanding is that "we" were better at communicating, sharing information, which allowed everyone to stand on the shoulders of everyone else in making advances. Or something like that.

In reply to ripper:

Maybe we're the thickos! A smarter bunch may have gone extinct in a famine or something before they had a chance to spread out.

In reply to nastyned:

A while back I heard a serious science programme on the radio about human evolution in which every time Neanderthals were mentioned they played a recording of Bob Hoskings exclaiming 'You slag!' Anyone recall it or did my subconscious make it up?

In reply to Chris_Mellor:

Neanderthals could cooperate and make art it is now thought, I think.

In reply to Timmd:

who's to say their genes didn't improve us by incorporation ?  Who's to say they might have been more peaceful and less aggressive than we are and thus "disappeared"?

I think we have a lot more to find out about them

In reply to nastyned:

Would a new Neanderthal be a “Neonderthal”? 

In reply to wercat:

Their gene variants certainly "improved" us Eurasians (with respect to survival in Eurasia and as compared to our progenitors that still had the versions they had when they left Africa). This is proven simply by the fact that these variants were retained in the face of selection (also shown more clearly by other, more sensitive genetic tests that show that at least some of the Neanderthal gene versions found in the genomes of modern Eurasians are more enriched than expected from simple population admixture, and are thus likely to have been positively selected for).

CB

In reply to elsewhere:

I've heard that they died out because we out-bred them, and competed for resources as a result. 

In reply to Timmd:

I see a scope for a pretty earthy fleshy drama telling the tale of these days of yore, "Game of Bones" ?

In reply to nastyned:

It'd be nice if we went back to breeding Homo Sapiens. 

What do you suppose is causing this worldwide epidemic of foolishness?

In reply to Fozzy:

I never dared ask, but now we have google:

http://deanweb.info/history5.html

In reply to nastyned:

Is there really a shortage of thick-skulled humanoids?

In reply to Timmd:

So we're the grey squirrels of the humanoid world?  Surprised the dolphins don't have us on an exterminate list then.

In reply to graeme jackson:

Nah, grey squirrels kill the red ones not by outbreeding but with the help of a pox virus they themselves are resistant to.

Squirrels in general are highly cute tree rats. British red ones are the last known reservoir for leprosy in Europe, and American chipmunks (also members of the squirrel family) carry brush typhus, Rocky mountain spotted fever and plague bacteria.

CB

In reply to wercat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Fire_(film) ?