See this kid right here? That's a reconstruction of how a Neanderthal boy would look like: red hair, fair skin, and all. Now imagine hearing how they must've sounded like 50,000 years ago. Thanks to Robert McCarthy, imagining it will be a lot easier. Head over the full article to hear a simulated voice of a Neanderthal.

Holger Roempler of Harvard University and the University of Leipzig, Carles Lalueza-Fox of the University of Barcelona and Michael Hofreiter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have challenged the commonly-accepted image of Neanderthals, claiming that some of the extinct hominids could have had fair skin and red hair.

Roempler, Lalueza-Fox and Hofreiter have been studying DNA samples taken from Neanderthal fossils found in Italy and Spain. During the course of their study, the researchers had found a mutation that can affect skin and hair pigmentation.

This mutation, according to Roempler et al, reduces the function of the gene known as melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is one of the key proteins regulating hair and skin color. The catch here is that a slightly different mutation in that gene causes red hair and fair skin in modern humans.

Buoyed by last year's discovery that Neanderthals also possessed the gene known to influence modern speech in humans, Roempler, Lalueza-Fox, Hofreiter and the other members of their team have been continuously working to analyze Neanderthal DNA-dubbed as "the blueprint of life" in the hopes of better understanding these ancient people.

Paleobiologists who examined eight excavated Neanderthal skeletons from El Sidron, Spain are convinced that the cut marks found in bones indicate that cannibalism was practiced by starving Neanderthals.

Lead researcher Antonio Rosas of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales Madrid said, "There is strong evidence suggesting that these Neanderthals were eaten. That is, long bones and the skull were broken for extraction of the marrow, [which] is very nutritious."

The findings support the general belief that periods of starvation have forced Neanderthals to look for other ways to supplement their diet. This is particularly true for adolescent Neanderthals. The low enamel deposit found in the teeth of younger Neanderthals provide evidence that they are getting minimal nutrition up to the point of starvation.

This may hold true for some remains that were examined, but surely, some researchers will not easily discount the possibility that the cut marks found in bones are indicative of a practice known as "ritual defleshing", where flesh is removed from a partially decomposed body.

"We have the Culture - you [Americans] have the Money. We have the thousand-year History, you have - the Money."

-Eric Idle, hosting Saturday Night Live sometime in the 1980's

Actually, Eric - the history of humans in the British Isles may go back a whole lot further than that, according to paleontologists.

It's fairly well known that, since ancient times, repeated invasions by continental Celts, Romans, Scots, Picts, Angles and Saxons, Norse, Danes and Norman French have filled the country known today as Great Britain with a curious brew, resulting in a unique blend of cultures. Recent discoveries indicate that these waves were only the most recent of a series of attempts at human settlement that span a period of 700,000 years.

"In human terms, Britain was the edge of the Universe," says Professor Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum, who directs the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project. According to the project's findings, there have been at least seven other attempts by humans to colonize the British. Each of these attempts were foiled by the freezing conditions of the Ice Age. The earliest human remains - from the first wave - have been found near Pakefield in Suffolk. The most recent - and first successful, continuous wave - seems to date from about 12,000 years ago. These first settlers were not Celts, nor in all probability even of Indo-Aryan stock, although traces of their physical type - short stature, high-cheekboned faces, darker skin and hair, often with grey eyes - may survive among people known as the Tinkers.

Between these waves were periods during which the British Isles were devoid of human habitation. "Australian aboriginals have been in Australia longer, continuously than the British people have been in Britain. There were probably people in the Americas before 12,000 years ago," Professor Stringer explained.

One interesting discovery by a colleague of Professor Stringer, Dr Danielle Schreve of the University of London, suggests that Neanderthals inhabited Britain for a time, around 60,000 years ago. The discovery included the remains of mammoths, rhino and other large animals Neanderthals were known to hunt. However, Neanderthal remains themselves have yet to be discovered.

Professor Stringer believes there are major discoveries yet to be found. Since sea levels were much lower during the Ice Age (the Thames river was in fact once a tributary of the Rhine), it's possible that remains of human settlements may lie at the bottom of the North Sea. Local fishermen regularly find mammoth fossils from the seabed. "There are very many promising sites in East Anglia where there is tremendous coastal erosion going on," said Stringer. "That's bad news for the people who live there now; and we don't want it too happen to quickly either because we need time to get to grips with what's coming out of the cliffs."