Neanderthal Genes Influence A Lot More Of Our Behavior Than We Realize

For instance, DNA from Neanderthals may play roles in modern humans’ hair color, skin color and tendency to tan, study senior author Janet Kelso, also a computational biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said in a statement. In addition, modern humans with certain Neanderthal gene variants tend to be smokers, and other Neanderthal gene variants are found more frequently in people who are “night owls.”