CED news: Neanderthals

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Hair: "Neanderthals may have been redheads," ABC, 26 October 2007. ... From a

[Left: "Neanderthals may have looked European," Telegraph]

fragmented MC1R nuclear DNA gene linked to hair and skin colour, researchers determined that it would have produced the same level of the melanin as in people with red hair and light skin. They claim that "Light skin would have been an evolutionary advantage for Neanderthals by allowing them to generate more vitamin D from sunlight in cloudy Europe." This seems plausible, but then again, if it turned out that Neanderthals had dark skin, or any skin tone in between, presumably Darwinists would then come up with a `just-so' story to explain, why there would have been an "evolutionary advantage" for that particular tone! Besides, as ScienceDaily indicates, the team actually said that "Neanderthals' pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans"! See also BBC, Science & Telegraph.

Language: Neanderthals hard-wired to talk, ABC/

[Right: Model of FOXP2 gene, Dr. Simon Fisher]

Discovery News, Jennifer Viegas, 19 October 2007 ... This study of Neanderthal nuclear DNA published in Current Biology, suggests that because Neanderthals had a gene involved in language, FOXP2, "there is no reason to think that Neanderthals did not have language as we do." But this is fallacious in that merely possessing a gene involved in language (or anything) does not necessarily mean that a species possessing that gene expressed it in that same way. And also the study's lead author, paleogeneticist Johannes Krause, admitted, "Of course many genes are involved in language." See also: Independent Online, Livescience, New York Times & ScienceDaily.

Stephen E. Jones, BSc. (Biology).
My other blog: TheShroudofTurin