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'The Independent' reports that new research suggests that people who go to bed and wake up early likely share DNA with extinct Neanderthal or Denisovan relatives. Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco compared genes from early-rising people alive today with DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans to uncover the link. "We’ve found many Neanderthal variants that consistently associate with a propensity for being a morning person.", According to Tony Capra, an evolutionary geneticist involved with the study, said that many modern humans likely carry the genes which helped their ancestors adapt. "We don’t think that being a morning person is actually what was beneficial. Rather, we think it is a signal of having a faster running clock that is better able to adapt to seasonal variation in light levels.", "At higher latitudes it is beneficial to have a clock that is more flexible and better able to change to match the variable seasonal light levels.", Tony Capra, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco, via 'The Independent'. 'The Independent' reports that homo sapiens migrated to Eurasia from Africa approximately 70,000 years ago. Upon arriving, they encountered Neanderthals, who were already well adapted to life in the colder, northern climate. "The further north you go, the shorter and shorter the days get in winter when food is particularly scarce, so it makes sense for Neanderthals and humans to start collecting food as soon as there is any light to work by.", Professor Mark Maslin, Professor at the University College London, via 'The Independent'. Both Neanderthals and Denisovans disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago, after living for hundreds of thousands of years

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