Red-haired Neandertals? 

From CNN.com
26 October, 2007

The image of Neandertals may need a revision: scientists say at least some of these extinct hominids could have had fair skin and red hair.

Researchers studying the DNA of Neandertals found a mutation in two individuals that can affect skin and hair pigmentation, they reported in Thursday's online issue of the journal Science.

The mutation reduces the function of a gene known as MC1R.

In modern humans, when a slightly different mutation reduces the function of that gene the result is red hair and fair skin, according to the team led by Holger Roempler of Harvard University and the University of Leipzig, Germany; Carles Lalueza-Fox of the University of Barcelona, Spain and Michael Hofreiter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.  

Read the rest of the article...