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There is grandeur in this view of life,’ Darwin wrote, ‘with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.’”
Darwin
In Europe, living in regions with a deficit of sunlight, Neanderthals probably had lighter skin color to make sufficient vitamin D. We know that at least one Neanderthal woman had red hair, and it has been theorized that the rare red-hair gene entered the modern human population through interbreeding with red-haired Neanderthals.
Always made sense - thought melanin
There is some genetic evidence that autism may be linked to atavistic Neanderthal gene variants cropping up in modern humans. One of the symptoms of autism is having difficulties in social interactions, suggesting that Neanderthals might have been similarly disadvantaged. This is one reason, perhaps, why they lived in smaller social units than modern humans—and why they could not compete when we arrived with our bigger and more cooperative groups.
Autism - Neanderthals?
