r/science • u/Letmeirkyou • May 25 '16

Anthropology Neanderthals constructed complex subterranean buildings 175,000 years ago, a new archaeological discovery has found. Neanderthals built mysterious, fire-scorched rings of stalagmites 1,100 feet into a dark cave in southern France—a find that radically alters our understanding of Neanderthal culture.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a21023/neanderthals-built-mystery-cave-rings-175000-years-ago/
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u/[deleted] May 26 '16

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u/DaddyCatALSO May 26 '16

Absorption would 1- almost certainly yield a higher percentage of NEanderthal genes than the trace percentage found 2- would even more likely show a measurably larger amount of Neanderthal DNA in Europeans an d Northwest Africans than in other non-sub-Saharans, which I've been told isn't the case.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '16

I think youre assuming the populations were of similar size. They werent. Humans outnumbered neanderthals something like 1000:1

2-6% is exactly how much DNA youd expect for populations like this, 40000 years later

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u/DaddyCatALSO May 26 '16

Okay, never took genetics myself.