The Neanderthals, or Homo neanderthalensis, may have had red hair and pale skin, a new study in Thursday's online issue of the journal Science claims. The study, led by Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the University of Barcelona, has found an unknown mutation in a key gene called MC1R, which regulates a protein that guides the production of melanin. The pigment melanin gives hair and skin its color and protects us from UV rays.

Carles Lalueza-Fox's team has studied the particular mutation on current living cells and found the variant suppressed the production of melanin, and thus likely gave the Neanderthals who carried it red hair and pale skin.

"The stereotype of primitive peoples is that they are dark skinned, but some paleontologists have been speculating for 20 years that some Neanderthals must have been pale skinned because they lived in northern Europe," said Erik Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, quoted by AFP. "Light skin is adaptive at higher altitudes because it allows more UVB radiation to penetrate the skin and that promotes Vitamin D synthesis."

The team then also examined the MC1R genes of around four thousand modern humans to check whether the Neanderthal mutation is shared between the two species, ours and Homo neanderthalensis'. Interestingly, no matches were found, suggesting that red hair evolved separately in Homo neanderthalensis and humans, rather than being shared through interbreeding.

There are different theories regarding our relationship with Homo neanderthalensis and this discovery may bolster the theory which claims we evolved separately from the Neanderthals. Apparently, the Neanderthal reached extinction in Europe 33,000 to 24,000 years ago, perhaps 15,000 years after Homo sapiens had migrated into Europe.

"I am quite sure this variant arose like the red hair variants in modern Europeans," said the study's lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the University of Barcelona.