(Photo : Wikimedia Commons/Yuliya Elizarova)
A man wanted to confirm his European ancestry, so he did a DNA test. However, he later found a more shocking results -- he had more Neanderthal genes that average people do.
Man Has 98% More Neanderthal Genes Than Average Person
Jori Waskahat, a designer and content creator from Canada, wanted to uncover his ancestral lineage. He was aware of his Indigenous American heritage and would frequently combine the traditional Indigenous elements in his craft. He is also an artist specializing in beadwork.
There was a family rumor that they had a distant European ancestor. Out of curiosity, he decided to do the DNA test using the ancestry DNA test that his partner purchased around Christmas. When they received the results, they didn't expect to see that he had an astonishing amount of Neanderthal DNA. He possessed 98 percent more Neanderthal genes than an average person. The results also confirmed that he was 8.7 percent European.
"I was poking fun at myself because I thought it was so funny that I had 98 percent more Neanderthal genes than everyone else in 23andMe's database, and millions of people worldwide use their testing services," Waskahat said.
The test findings surprised and intrigued Waskahat at the same time. He also admitted that he knew the comments on his video would be hilarious because he and the people in the native community enjoy making fun of each other. However, he never imagined that the video would have millions of views.
He shared the results of his DNA test on Instagram in February. He jokingly said that he wasn't okay and prompted others to check their friends as they didn't know what their pals were going through
Meanwhile, several netizens got the humor. One replied with, "You ARE the ancestors" with a face with tears of joy emoji. Another said that he was "more sacred" than the rest of the people. A third person said that he had the "Adam and Eve DNA."
Although Wakahat has more Neanderthal heritage than most, he had less than 2 percent Neanderthal DNA overall.
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Modern Humans vs. Neanderthals
In the book, "The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature," Ludovic Slimak, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toulouse in France and the director of the Grotte Mandrin, talked about the differences between modern humans and Neanderthals. He claimed to have spoken with a prominent member of the Academy of Sciences in Russia, who informed him that Neanderthals are "different" and "have no soul."
He claimed that the discussion made him view the problem from a different perspective, given the "unspoken, unconscious assumptions" that underlie our understanding of humanity. He pointed out that our unconscious is embedded in Neanderthal culture.
Physical characteristics are among the most evident distinctions between Neanderthals and modern humans. The former has a small pelvis and a high, rounded, or globular braincase. In contrast, the latter have a wider pelvis and a longer, lower cranium, according to their fossils.
Modern people and Neanderthals have interacted on multiple occasions in the past. There are even claims that Neanderthal and modern people had children together, although the latter group would eventually vanish while the former would persist. Modern humans reportedly have one key advantage over the Neanderthals.
The University of Bath's Nicholas R. Longrich, a Senior Lecturer in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, made a comparison between Neanderthals and modern people. He identified the size of their tribes as the primary distinction between the two.
While Neanderthal cultures were similar to our own, there was one key distinction: their smaller social groups are reflected in their lower levels of genetic variation.
In tiny populations, genes are readily lost. One death might eradicate the gene for curly hair, if one in 10 people carries it. In a band of 50, five people would each have multiple backup copies of the gene. Tiny populations eventually accrue fewer genes and lose genetic diversity as a result.
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