
The influence of Neanderthals is evident right in the center of the faces of modern humans. New research finds that genetic material inherited from Neanderthals affects nose shape. A particular gene made the nose taller from top to bottom. This may have been necessary as ancient humans adapted to colder climates. “In the last 15 years since the Neanderthal genome has been sequenced, we have been able to learn that our own ancestors apparently interbred with Neanderthals, leaving us with little bits of their DNA,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Kaustubh Adhikari. He is from the University College London (UCL) Genetics, Evolution & Environment and The Open University, in England. “Here, we find that some DNA inherited from Neanderthals influences the shape of our faces. This could have been helpful to our ancestors, as it has been passed down for thousands of generations,” Adhikari said in a UCL news release. For the study, the researchers worked with data from more than 6,000 volunteers across Latin America of mixed European, Native American and African ancestry. Those participants are part of the UCL-led CANDELA study, which recruited from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru. To study how different facial traits were associated with the presence of different genetic markers, the scientists compared genetic information from the participants to photographs of their faces. They looked at distances between points… read on > read on >