You may have been correct!

[jseal]

Do you remember that knuckle-dragging brute you had as a boss? The one that you and the rest of his subordinates suspected was a modern Neanderthal?

You may have been more right than you thought; recent research suggests that Neanderthal genes survive (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8660940.stm) in us.

[Oldfart]

As I read it, it's a shared DNA we have with the Neandertals, but is absent in modern Africans. This has implications I'm still absorbing.

[jseal]

As the “Out of Africa” thesis for Sapiens is generally accepted, and as the ‘gene flow’ between Neanderthalensis and Sapiens likely occurred in the Levant or Eastern Europe, and as Caucasians have the lowest levels of melanin, then might not that be a Neanderthal trait?

[Oldfart]

Melanin shades from the northern European almost-albino to the eastern Mediterranean dark skin. Melanin also shades from the arctic to the equator and beyond. Neandertal DNA codes for fair to red hair.

[jseal]

Neanderthals and moderns share the same version of the gene FOXP2, which is involved in the ability to speak - and which differs from that in chimpanzees.

Humanity, Know thyself!

[Oldfart]

Indeed. Neander Man may have been closer to sapiens than some of the modern divergences. Big bloke, handy for carrying fallen trees and killing hairy elephants and cave bears. Sounds good to me.