As the early man from the Leon area in Spain was a small hunter not exposed to agriculture and farm animals, he could not digest lactose.
La Berna 1, the name given by the researchers to a man who lived in the Mesolithic period 7,000 years ago whose remains were excavated at the La Barna-Arientro site in Valdegros (Leon province, Spain). A study led by Carlos Lazola-Fox, a researcher at Spain's National Science Council (CSIC) in collaboration with the Center for Geogenetics in Denmark, suggests that he had blue eyes and dark skin. La Barnia 1 is the first European small game to have its genome decoded.
The study was published in the journal Nature.
The Mesolithic period, which spans from 10,000 years ago to 5,000 years ago (between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods), ended with the invention of agriculture and the domestication of farm animals that came from the Middle East. The advent of the Hinolithic period with its carbon-based diet and the diseases transmitted through domesticated farm animals caused metabolic and immunological challenges that were reflected in the genetic adoption of post-Mesolithic populations. Among these is the ability to digest lactose, something the man from La Barnia could not do.
Says Leloise-Fox: "However, the biggest surprise was to discover that this man contained African versions of the genes that determine the light pigmentation of modern Europeans, indicating that he had dark skin, although we don't know exactly what shade."
The researcher from CSIC, who works at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, added: "An even more surprising thing was to discover that he carries genetic variations that produce blue eyes in modern-day Europeans, which resulted in a unique phenotype within a genome that is clearly primarily European."
The genome study raises the hypothesis that today's populations close to La Bernia 1 are found in Northern Europe, in areas such as Sweden and Finland. In addition, the study reveals that La Barnia 1 shared its genes with a Paleolithic settler at the Maltha site in Lake Baikal in Siberia, and that its genome was deciphered a few months ago. Laluza-Fox concludes: "These data indicate genetic continuity in the population of Central and Western Eurasia. In fact, these data are consistent with the archaeological remains at other sites in Europe and Russia, including the Maltha site. Female figures known as Paleolithic Venus have been discovered at many sites and are similar to each other.
The La Barnia-Arientro excavation site was discovered by chance in 2006 and was excavated by Manuel Vidal Enzias, an archaeologist at the Council of Castile and Leon. The cave, which is located in a cold mountainous area with a constant temperature at an altitude of 1,500 above sea level, which contributed to the extraordinary preservation of the DNA from two individuals known as La Barnia 1 and La Barnia 2.
According to Inigo Olada, the lead researcher in the study, the team members also intend to reconstruct the genome of the other less well-preserved individual, in order to know more about the genetic characteristics of these early Europeans.
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wow Spectacular pictures. So man has always been a man actually?
And he was a kid? I thought collecting was a distinctly female profession.
The times of the Stone Ages mentioned at the beginning of the article do not correspond to the Middle East. Here 10000 years before us is the Neolithic, the Mesolithic preceded it. 7000 BC is the Slab Stone Age and 5000 BC with the invention of writing is the Bronze Age. But maybe in Spain the times in the article are suitable.