The Discovery of Fire - Tadufeu

If you have ever wondered the circumstances in which fire was first discovered, then you need look no further (unless you want the truth, of course).

However, Tadufeu, a very funny animated short from a group of students at the ESMA School of Arts in France gives you one possibility at least.

A group of Cromags accidentally discover fire and, of course, are not willing to let their little secret fall in to the wrong hands. So, when a cold Neandert wanders their way they fob him off with various useless items. Then, one day, it rains.

This is certainly not quite what the history books will tell you but it is nonetheless great fun if you don’t mind a little violence!). Plus if you would like to find out more about this animated short then why not pop over to the Tadufeu website (in French).

The Neanderthal in You

Have you ever wondered what it means to be human? Well if you haven’t then many scientists, theologians and philosophers have given it quite a lot of thought over the last six thousand years or so. For that amount of time we have thought we were pretty much unique – a one of a kind.

However, new evidence shows that we are more related to our closes ancestors, the Neanderthals, than anyone had previously guessed. Here Stephen Nash, a Denver Museum of Nature and Science scientist explains this link to the Neanderthal, with the aid of some excellent visuals.

Neanderthal Rationale – DNA of Primitive Species found in Homo Sapiens

 Image Credit Flickr User erix!

It will be of no surprise to anyone who has experienced Bristol on a Saturday night when the pubs close to discover that the DNA of the Neanderthal has been found in modern humans.

A study just published in the journal Science has shown that quite probably there was what is known as a ‘gene flow’ from Neanderthals to modern humans.

‘Gene flow’ is a polite scientific term for the very likely fact that Neanderthals got jiggy with our distant ancestors.  Although we lived in close proximity for thousands of years to what would have been our nearest relatives if they hadn’t become extinct scientist have till now dismissed the possibility of interbreeding between the two species.

However, meticulous research in to the DNA of the Neanderthal from bones has revealed a surprising result.  When the Neanderthal genome was compared to that of modern humans (all non-Africans – and that is an important point) Neanderthal code was discovered in each and every one of them, albeit tiny sequences.

Why is the non-African part important?  No trace of the genome has been found in people of African descent meaning that the fait was accompli after humans had migrated from Africa.

University of California scientists now believe that the act of union between the two species probably happened in the Middle East somewhere.

Work on mitochondrial DNA points towards the idea that the interbreeding was between Neanderthal men and human women – there is no proof of genetic flow in the opposite direction.

This likely indicates that the resulting offspring were probably brought up within human communities.

We bet they were terribly bullied at school.

Image Credits

Neanderthal Child - Wikimedia

Black and White Neanderthal - Wikimedia