{"id":626014,"date":"2026-08-07T21:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626014\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:10:25","slug":"neanderthal-gene-still-shapes-muscle-and-jaws-in-some-living-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626014\/","title":{"rendered":"Neanderthal Gene Still Shapes Muscle and Jaws in Some Living Humans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neanderthals vanished roughly 42,000 years ago, but a piece of their biology appears to be quietly at work in some people today, according to a new study led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Aspects<\/p>\n

Aspects of Neanderthal anatomy live on in people today. Image credit: Holger Neumann \/ Neanderthal Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeanderthals are the most well-known among archaic human forms,\u201d said Dr. Philipp Kanis, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey appeared in the fossil record approximately 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, inhabited western Asia and Europe, and became extinct around 42,000 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNeanderthals had more robust bodies and larger brains than present-day humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir defining characteristics include prominent brow ridges, an occipital bun at the back of the skull, a barrel-shaped thorax, greater muscle mass, and short-rooted teeth (taurodontism).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough none of these traits are unique to Neanderthals, the combination of these features is distinctive and led early researchers to propose that they represented a separate evolutionary lineage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Neanderthal genome sequence confirmed that they evolved largely in isolation from modern humans for half a million years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, they were not completely isolated. Before their extinction, Neanderthals interbred with modern humans. As a result, people with non-African roots today carry approximately 2% Neanderthal DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the main admixture event between Neanderthals and modern humans likely took place some 47,000 years ago, findings over the last decade also support some admixture prior to the main expansion of modern humans out of Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

To understand the robust build of Neanderthals, the researchers examined the growth hormone receptor, a protein that helps control how the body responds to growth hormone released by the pituitary gland.<\/p>\n

Comparing modern human DNA with high-quality Neanderthal genomes, they found that Neanderthals carried a distinctive version of the receptor, marked by two amino acid changes not found in Africans today.<\/p>\n

When they inserted the Neanderthal version of the receptor into lab-grown cells and exposed them to growth hormone, the cells multiplied faster and showed stronger downstream signaling than cells carrying the modern human version.<\/p>\n

Because Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of modern non-African populations, the gene variant was passed down and survives today, particularly in South and East Asia, where it can be found in roughly a fifth of some populations.<\/p>\n

It is rare or absent in sub-Saharan Africa, consistent with populations there having little to no Neanderthal ancestry.<\/p>\n

Drawing on genetic and health data from more than a million people across several biobanks, the researchers found that adults who carry the Neanderthal variant tend to be slightly taller and heavier than non-carriers, with the extra weight attributable mostly to greater muscle mass rather than fat.<\/p>\n

Carriers also tended to have a shorter mandibular ramus \u2014 part of the jawbone \u2014 a higher likelihood of overbite, and somewhat shorter tooth roots, all traits associated with Neanderthal skeletons.<\/p>\n

The differences were not detectable in children, suggesting they emerge around puberty, when growth hormone levels rise sharply.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat struck me most was that two very different types of evidence told the same story,\u201d Dr. Kanis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCells grown in the laboratory responded more strongly, while data from more than a million people showed signs of the same effect in the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rare to see laboratory and population evidence fit together so clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fascinating that one genetic change inherited from Neanderthals can still have an effect on the human body today,\u201d added Dr. Hugo Zeberg, also from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is only one of many genetic influences on growth and body shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt cannot explain the Neanderthal body type on its own, and it certainly does not determine a person\u2019s overall appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s paper<\/a> was published in the journal Current Biology.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Philipp Kanis et al. Increased signaling of the Neanderthal growth hormone receptor. Current Biology, published online August 5, 2026; doi: 10.1016\/j.cub.2026.07.025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neanderthals vanished roughly 42,000 years ago, but a piece of their biology appears to be quietly at work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[3286,18,3288,3289,7111,167949,264333,13645,3290,3291,3292,10536,3293,19,17,46508,264334,3294,3295,170,133],"class_list":["post-626014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-dna","tag-eire","tag-gene","tag-genome","tag-growth","tag-growth-hormone","tag-growth-hormone-receptor","tag-hominin","tag-homo","tag-homo-neanderthalensis","tag-homo-sapiens","tag-hormone","tag-human","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jaw","tag-mandibular-ramus","tag-muscle","tag-neanderthal","tag-protein","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117056283817930503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}