In 2012 , archeologist made an amazing discovery in a Spanish cave : the intact , 8,000 - class - honest-to-goodness skeleton of a man who lived in the area . Now they ’ve sequenced his genome , and discovered quite a chip about life among hunter - gatherer in southern Europe .
The La Braña man , as he ’s called , was lay to rest with another person , and they were both surrounded by the teeth of the red deer . These were in all likelihood of symbolic importance to his people , who hunt the red cervid as one of their main sources of meat — indeed , cherry-red cervid tooth ornaments have been found in ancient human settlements throughout Europe . La Braña human beings also lived at a all-important transitional time for humanity , at the consequence when agriculture was fan out throughout his household continent .
Though people had been farming for century in the Middle East at this meter , La Braña man was part of a group of huntsman - gatherer who live nomadically . Nevertheless , it ’s clear from his genome thathe was descended from people in the middle east . Those people immigrate into Europe , spread out in nomadic bands which traded with each other over huge distances and come along to have shared the same culture . They also had some physical traits in common too , one of which was juicy eyes and dark pelt .

Writes Michael Balter in Science :
One surprise is thatthe La Braña man had dark tegument and blue middle , a combination seldom meet in modern Europeans . Although today ’s southern Europeans incline to be slightly drear than their northern counterparts , they are still relatively light - skinned compared with Africans , an adaption often linked to the need to steep more sunshine and so acquire tolerable amounts of vitamin D. That this feature of the La Braña skeleton might have been widely shared and not just a one - off is also suggested by recent findings , as yet unpublished but posted online in preliminary form , thatother European hunter - gatherers also had dark skin and downhearted optic .
Though La Braña military man was a nomad , his connection to farming group nevertheless present through in his genes . scientist know that the sedentary living of farming life changed the human genome , by creating an environment where people were more potential to survive if they could ward off infectious diseases associated with high - density city life story ( patently cities were smaller 8,000 years ago , but they were still dense ) . It seems that ability existed even in the people who had left the Middle East to cast the wilds of Europe . It ’s possible they had even suffered from diseases that began among their farming relatives , long before they met those relatives face - to - brass .

Balter continues :
But the La Braña human race did have some talents think to have originated only with husbandry societies : His immune scheme was evidently up to of fighting off a number of diseases , such as tuberculosis , pneumonia , and malaria ( which was endemic in southern Europe until modern time ) , which researcher had assumed were passed to humanity from animal once oxen , sheep , and other specie were tame . Out of 40 genes involved in resistance that the team look at , 24 ( 60 % ) were exchangeable to those of modern Europeans . “ It appear that the first line of defense against pathogens was already there , ” articulate Wolfgang Haak , an ancient DNA research worker at the University of Adelaide in Australia . One possible explanation , [ geneticist Carles ] Lalueza - Fox add together , is that “ epidemic affecting early farmers in the [ Middle East ] spread to continental Europe before they went themselves . ”
That said , La Braña man was not yet capable to digest starches and break down milk sugar very well . The genes that admit us to do that are also essential mutant that helped people adapt to agricultural society in Europe .

Writes Balter :
Another feature of the La Braña genome is more consistent with current thinking about how farming change human biology , however . The gene involved in breaking down milk sugar ( the key sugar in milk products ) and starch ( the cardinal nutrient in domesticate plants ) were in an “ hereditary ” frame , the team reports , meaning that Orion - gatherer were not dependable at digest these food , which afterward became all important to farming bon ton .
So it ’s probable that La Braña man was part of a transitional smart set where James Leonard Farmer and Orion - gatherers co - existed , and perhaps even shared the same cultural traditions .

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anthropologyBiologyEvolutionGeneticsGenomicsHuman evolutionScience
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