# Cheddar Lives Madder **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357 "2018-02-07T14:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/1 "2018-02-07T14:01:08Z")
Scientists have managed a full nuclear genome sequence for the 10,000-year-old “Cheddar Man” skeleton–[and found that his skin was considerably less pink than certain quarters will be happy with](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42939192). ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/2 "2018-02-07T16:31:24Z")
Shouldn’t someone named “Cheddar Man” be orange? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/3 "2018-02-07T17:01:00Z")
Interesting, but we won’t know for sure until we clone him. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/4 "2018-02-07T17:07:01Z")
Might be Trump ancestor…better be careful there… ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/5 "2018-02-07T17:45:23Z")
Why did they give him a smirk? Maybe he was a miserable bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/6 "2018-02-07T19:45:04Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Why did they give him a smirk? Maybe he was a miserable bastard. I dunno, if 10,000 years from now I was the prototypical example of modern North Americans, I’d be smirking too. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/7 "2018-02-07T20:01:48Z")
Other studies have found the combination of dark skin and blue eyes in other ancient Europeans, [like this one from Spain](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140126-blue-eye-spain-fossil-human-discovery-gene/). In contrast, the more recent Otzi the Ice Man from about 5,000 years ago had brown eyes. Reconstructions show pale skin but I haven’t found cites that that’s based on genetic analysis. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/8 "2018-02-07T20:08:32Z")
It’s amazing how quickly traits like that can turn over, in a population. I guess the peppered moth is the classic example, but their lifespans are much shorter. Still, on a scale of 10,000 years… Did I read somewhere that not only red hair but pale skin is likely a Neanderthal thing? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/9 "2018-02-07T20:16:53Z")
Apparently blue eyes were a recent genetic developement…one wonders how many of said children were thought gods and how many thought demons… Also, read recently that red heads will eventually die out… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/10 "2018-02-07T20:24:42Z")
I’m not an expert, just an interested amateur, but I seem to recall reading that the red hair allele in Neanderthals is a different allele than the red hair in _H. sapiens_. So while both groups had red haired individuals the hair was red due to unrelated genes. Each species evolved red hair on its own at some point, they did not get it from a common ancestor. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/11 "2018-02-07T20:30:56Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Why did they give him a smirk? Maybe he was a miserable bastard. Definitely a Trump ancestor, then. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/12 "2018-02-07T20:33:02Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Also, read recently that red heads will eventually die out… They won’t. That’s like saying blue eyes are going to die out or the “white race” is going to die out. Red heads might become less common but nothing is eliminating the gene(s) from the human race. The traits will still exist no matter how mixed-race our descendants. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/13 "2018-02-07T20:37:33Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Definitely a Trump ancestor, then. Might even be related to me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/14 "2018-02-07T20:52:00Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Did I read somewhere that not only red hair but pale skin is likely a Neanderthal thing? Neanderthals had a gene variant that produced red hair and pale skin. Modern humans have a similar variant, but it is not exactly the same nor derived from that in Neanderthals. This would then represent a case of convergent evolution. As shown in the results mentioned above, pale skin became prevalent in Europe only tens of thousands of years after Neanderthals were extinct. In contrast to the way we usually think of them, red-haired pale-skinned Neanderthals may have confronted dark-haired dark-skinned Cro Magnons. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/15 "2018-02-07T21:00:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I’m not an expert, just an interested amateur, but I seem to recall reading that the red hair allele in Neanderthals is a different allele than the red hair in _H. sapiens_. So while both groups had red haired individuals the hair was red due to unrelated genes. Each species evolved red hair on its own at some point, they did not get it from a common ancestor. Sounds easily possible. Lactose tolerance has evolved in human populations in different ways [Lactase persistence - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence#Africa) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/16 "2018-02-08T20:57:45Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Scientists have managed a full nuclear genome sequence for the 10,000-year-old “Cheddar Man” skeleton–[and found that his skin was considerably less pink than certain quarters will be happy with](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42939192). So you’re saying it will grate on them? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/17 "2018-02-08T21:12:07Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > So you’re saying it will grate on them? Wow, you munster. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/18 "2018-02-08T21:57:01Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Sounds easily possible. Lactose tolerance has evolved in human populations in different ways [Lactase persistence - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence#Africa) > [@](#): > > Pale skin probably arrived in Britain with a migration of people from the Middle East around 6,000 years ago. This population had pale skin and brown eyes and absorbed populations like the ones Cheddar Man belonged to. I can just imagine the Tories at the time raving on about how those light skin immigrants are going to ruin Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/19 "2018-02-08T22:15:00Z")
“Demned foreigners goin’ round tearing up the soil to plant seeds. It’s not natural! Things grow where they grow! You can’t go around planting things where they’re not growing! Then they chase off perfectly good animals they should be eatin’ just so’s they don’t eat their barley. And they act like they OWN that little patch of ground they’re squatin’ on! Nobody owns land! Someone should do somethin’ ‘bout it, I rekon, before they start marryin’ our kids!” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357/20 "2018-02-09T00:29:17Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I dunno, if 10,000 years from now I was the prototypical example of modern North Americans, I’d be smirking too. The bad news is that Thog is going to bash your skull in when you’re 22. The good news is 10,000 years from now people will be playing with your skull. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheddar-lives-madder/808357.md?page=2)