Richard Collins: Nose shape gene inherited from Neanderthals

Humans inherited genetic material from Neanderthals that affects the shape of our noses, a new study finds

Humans may have inherited nose shape gene from Neanderthals, study suggests. Image: Kaustubh Adhikari/UCL

What did the Neanderthals ever do for us? Quite a lot, it seems, if scientists at University College London (UCL) are to be believed.

We have an ambivalent attitude to these ‘archaic humans’. Edwin Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen makes the scalp tighten, Audubon’s bird portraits take our breath away, but artists’ impressions of Neanderthals are ominously surreal. The thought that our ancestors may have had intimate relations with these distant cousins is disturbing. Can such ugly creatures really be ‘one of us’?