Did Neanderthals have red hair?

[Ivan Seeking]

..."We found a variant of MC1R in Neanderthals which is not present in modern humans, but which causes an effect on the hair similar to that seen in modern redheads," said lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, assistant professor in genetics at the University of Barcelona. [continued]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7062415.stm

 

[jim mcnamara]

reference:

Carles Lalueza-Fox, Holger Römpler, David Caramelli, Claudia Stäubert, Giulio Catalano, David Hughes, Nadin Rohland, Elena Pilli, Laura Longo, Silvana Condemi, Marco de la Rasilla, Javier Fortea, Antonio Rosas, Mark Stoneking, Torsten Schöneberg, Jaume Bertranpetit, and Michael Hofreiter
A Melanocortin 1 Receptor Allele Suggests Varying Pigmentation Among Neanderthals.
(25 October 2007) Science.