European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says

[Siegfried]

European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says

Europeans inherit their looks from Stone Age hunters, new research suggests.

Scientists studied ancient skeletons from Scandinavia to North Africa and Greece, comparing ancient and modern facial features.

Their analysis suggests modern Europeans are closely related and descended from prehistoric indigenous peoples.

Later Neolithic settlers—notably immigrants who introduced farming from the Near East some 7,500 years ago—contributed little to how Europeans look today, the researchers add.

[Source]

[fog]

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2005_12...s_archive.html

[lei.talk]

Europeans Descended From Hunters, Not Farmers, Study Says

Europeans owe their ancestry mainly to Stone Age hunters, not to later migrants who brought farming to Europe from the Middle East, a new study suggests.

Based on DNA analysis of ancient skeletons from Germany, Austria, and Hungary, the study sways the debate over the origins of modern Europeans toward hunter-gatherers who colonized Europe some 40,000 years ago.

The DNA evidence suggests immigrant farmers who arrived tens of thousands of years later contributed little to the European gene pool.

James Owen
for National Geographic News
November 10, 2005

[fog]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...10_europe.html

the team investigated mitochondrial DNA—a permanent genetic marker passed from mothers to their offspring

Perhaps most of the invaders were males?