Recently, we were hearing about how most Neanderthal DNA got deleted from our genome by natural selection.
Now, from Anna Azolinsky at The Scientist:
The interbreeding of Neanderthals and Denisovans with Homo sapiens resulted in advantageous Neanderthal-inherited alleles in the genomes of a diverse range of modern humans, according to genomicists. The team’s analysis, published today (November 10) in Current Biology, expands the number of loci in the human genome attributed to these ancient hominins. The results suggest that these alleles—mostly within immune and skin pigmentation genes—likely helped modern humans adapt to life outside of Africa.
“The study expands our knowledge of the extent to which Neanderthals and Denisovans contributed functionally relevant genetic variation to modern humans,” Svante Pääbo, an evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, who was not involved in the work, wrote in an email to The Scientist. “It shows that the contribution [of hominin DNA] is substantial and is larger than I assumed when we first discovered that these extinct hominins had mixed with modern human ancestors.” More.
See also: Natural selection “may have” deleted Neanderthal DNA from modern human genomes… We actually have little idea why it happened and that is a key problem with Darwinism (natural selection acting on random mutation). In the absence of evidence, it becomes a narrative: A story one can tell that sounds plausible to anyone who learned only Darwinism in school.
and
Neanderthal Man: The long-lost relative turns up again, this time with documents
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