Ozzy Osbourne's Genome Reveals Some Neanderthal Lineage 151
ByOhTek writes "CNN reports that in July, rocker Ozzy Osbourne became one of few to submit his blood to have his full genome sequenced and analyzed. The results are in, and it turns out his genome reveals some Neanderthal lineage. What does Ozzie have to say about it? 'I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years - not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol... there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive. Maybe my DNA could say why,' he wrote."
Why he's alive... (Score:3, Interesting)
'I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years - not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol... there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive.
Give me a f**king break! You're alive because you're a well-nourished 62 y/o man who has not (yet) contracted a fatal disease and has avoided fatal traumatic injury in spite of frequent intoxication. Most men in the UK and the US are still alive at 62 yrs.
Re:Wait.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. Which way that absorption went will remain a mystery, unless we develop time travel.
If the stronger neanderthal men (men said as a general term, not a gender) captured significant numbers of cro-magnon men as slaves, farmers, or even just capturing the more attractive women to use for their own purposes, they could have thinned out their blood lines inadvertently.
Neanderthal were considered stronger, stouter, and smarter (based on brain cavity size). In the animal kingdom, where both groups would have applied at the time (except for tool use by the neanderthal), the stronger tend to conquer the weak for things they want. If there was a tendency towards capturing the seemingly more attractive cro-magnon women as mates, the change would have happened fairly rapidly, over several generations. That's not to say that this is the way it played out, but it seems more reasonable than neanderthal man dying out due to food restrictions, where the cro-magnon man survived. The stronger, smart people would have simply taken anything they needed from the nearby weaker species, and wouldn't have even grunted "thank you." The women may have chosen to mate with the neanderthal male because he could provide better protection in the prehistoric harsh world.
This may still be in play. We idolize thin attractive women [harpersbazaar.com], who are more likely to mate with the stronger male [tipdeck.com], with disregard to intelligence. We see this mating ritual starting in grade school, where the jocks get the cheerleaders, and will beat up anyone weaker to attain their goal. For many women, this show of strength is very attractive.
Think, big strong man protecting his fragile beautiful mate.
We like to think we've evolved, but in reality we haven't evolved much, other than adding new variables (fast cars, expensive houses, lavishing a prospective mate with gifts). The only real difference is that the gene pool has diminished, so the strong smart neanderthal man is now part of an almost identical gene pool to the weaker cro-magnon man.
Don't try to explain this to that girl who you'd like to date. She's interested in the jock, for subconscious genetic reasons. No amount of logic will correct it.