This could have been helpful to our ancestors, as it has been passed down for thousands of generations. “We find that some DNA inherited from Neanderthals influenced the shape of our faces. “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,” Kaustubh Adhikari, UCL researcher and co-author of the study, said in a news release. Anyone care to discuss the Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J Sawyer (spoilers). That DNA, they say, became a part of the human makeup thanks to interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals. They are alien to each other, yet bound together by the never-ending quest for knowledge and, beneath their differences, a common humanity. In a new study published in Communications Biology, the authors claim that human face shapes, specifically the nose, come derived from Neanderthal DNA. Hominids is a strong, stand-alone SF novel, but it's also the first book of The Neanderthal Parallax, a trilogy that examines two unique species of people. Natural selection may have favored the Neanderthal-influenced face shape, study says.īeing compared to a Neanderthal would have once been considered a good thing, at least according to a theory from a group of University College London researchers.

The lingering DNA comes from humans interbreeding with Neanderthals, according to a research study.Researchers from University College London claim Neanderthal DNA has influenced the shape of human noses.Humans is a 2004 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel. Humans is one of the best SF novels of the year, and The Neanderthal Parallax is an SF classic in the making. As we see daily life in another present-day world, radically different from ours, in the course of Sawyer's fast-moving story, we experience the bursts of wonder and enlightenment that are the finest pleasures of science fiction. In Humans, Neanderthal physicist Ponter Boddit, a character you will never forget, returns to our world and to his relationship with geneticist Mary Vaughan, as cultural exchanges between the two Earths begin. This powerful idea allows Sawyer to examine some of the deeply rooted assumptions of contemporary human civilization dramatically, by confronting us with another civilization, just as morally valid, that has made other choices. Sawyer, the award-winning and bestselling writer, hits the peak of his powers in Humans, the second book of The Neanderthal Parallax The trilogy tells of our world and a parallel one in which it was the Homo sapiens who died out and the Neanderthals who became the dominant intelligent species.

The neanderthal parallax