Are Redheads Descended from Neanderthals?

In 2003, Dr. Rosalind Harding, a quantitative geneticist from the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford, estimated that the age of the red hair variants or alleles of the Melanocortin 1 Receptor gene were as follows:

Assumption 1: If MC1R red hair variants evolved in a human population of constant size, then the gene could be approximately 40,000 years or older and may come from a Neanderthal origin.

Assumption 2: If MC1R red hair variants evolved in a population that has been expanding exponentially, then the gene could be less than 40,000 years old and may come from early humans or Cro-Magnon.

Assumption 3: If MC1R red hair variants were under positive selection or favored in evolution then the gene can be as young as 10,000 years.

The mere suggestion that redheads are descended from Neanderthals may offend you or if you have more genetic knowledge, you might think it genetically impossible. For a while, I have to admit that I was quite intrigued by the idea of being descended from Neanderthals. I thought that it might explain why I always felt like an alien. If redheads were “the others’ (to use a Lost reference) then that might explain why people have been superstitious about us throughout time. Then again, our pitiful numbers (2% of the world’s population) may also be the cause for superstition.

However, with the publication of the October 2008 issue of National Geographic, the Neanderthal-Redhead connection was supposedly “myth-busted.” Researchers conducted DNA tests on Neanderthal remains and while it was discovered that they were indeed redheads (very exciting!), apparently they had independently evolved their own red hair variants that were completely different than the human red hair variants. If both Neanderthals and humans independently evolved red hair variants, then this may support that there is an evolutionary advantage to red hair, such as the ability to produce more vitamin D with less sunlight exposure.

But, for some reason when I read this, I still did not want to let the Neanderthal-Redhead theory go. They haven’t DNA tested every single Neanderthal that walked the earth. For all we know, maybe Neanderthals had triple the red hair variants than humans have. Humans may have only inherited 5 of the Neanderthal's multiple red hair variants and did NOT inherit the ONE Neanderthal red hair variant that scientists just happened to discover on that particular day. But who am I to argue with scientists?

Then in January 2010, Alan Alda hosted this great series on PBS entitled "The Human Spark". Apparently, what distinguishes early modern humans from Neanderthals includes the human ability to be more innovative with technology, their complex human social structure, and their ability to be artistic. So then it seemed like the Neanderthal-Redhead connection was very unlikely because, as you know already, redheads are some of the most artistic and technologically and socially savvy humans there are. So I threw my arms up and gave up UNTIL......

The October 2010 edition of Discover magazine states that early humans and Neanderthals mated after all! Evolutionary geneticist Svante Paabo and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany analyzed DNA fragments from Neanderthal bones and traced Neanderthal and human interbreeding back by 60,000 years to the Middle East. Apparently, 1 to 4 percent of the human genome outside of Africa is Neanderthal!!! The gene flow between humans and Neanderthals most likely occurred as humans were migrating to Europe, Asia, and New Guinea.

Now the question is whether the 1 to 4 percent of the human genome that is Neanderthal in origin includes the 5 human red hair variants of the MC1 receptor gene, which are responsible for creating about 2 percent of the world's population -- Redheads!

Um......or something like that....? Ow, my brain, it hurts.