Two Day Magazine

You Really Are Part Caveman! (Or Cavewoman!)

For the first time in history, scientists have been able to sequence and analyze Neanderthal genes, according to www.livescience.com.  The Neanderthals lived between 130,000 and 30,000 years ago. Their genome provides strong evidence that this once thought-to-be-extinct ancient hominid did indeed mate and interbred with modern humans’ ancestors.

But, who were the Neanderthals?

“They were a lot more closely related to us than anything alive today,” states paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati at the University of  Tübingen in Germany.

Neanderthals had stockier, wider bodies than the modern human, with shorter limbs, as well. Think of a wrestler’s body. Their brains were at least as big as ours, they lived in complex social groups, made stone tools, could hunt, control fire and buried their dead. There is even some evidence to argue that they took care of their sick, while genetic research suggests that they may have even shared the ability to create basic language.

“The Neanderthals are not totally extinct,” explained study leader Svante Pääbo, of the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “In some of us, they live on a little bit.”

This is huge! This is a major step forward in putting together the puzzle that is our evolutionary history! It has taken scientists years to complete the first sequence of the Neanderthal genome, now at 60% completion. How did they do it? The researchers were able to extract DNA from 40,000 year-old female Neanderthal bones that were found in the Vindija cave in Croatia. The researchers fought an uphill battle of having to screen out present-day human DNA and bacterial contamination, but they were successful.

DID YOU KNOW: The report also states that 1-4% of some modern humans’ DNA comes from the ancient Neanderthals! Past research demonstrates that Neanderthal genomes and modern human genomes are 99.5% identical, based on DNA extracted from Croatian fossils!

“Dr. Pääbo’s publication of the full Neanderthal genome is a watershed event, a major historical achievement,” said Gregory Hannon of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Laurel Hollow, N.Y., who was involved in analyzing the genome.

Scientists have been arguing whether humans and Neanderthals ever did interbreed and share genes, and with the findings of this genome project, that controversy is being laid to rest.

They also found evidence for Neanderthal genes in the genomes of modern-day humans in Papua New Guinea, Europe and Asia; they estimate that interbreeding may have happened about 60,000 years ago! They did not find genes in Africa, which is really interesting, and suggests that interbreeding occurred after we migrated from Africa, but before splintering in to many groups that diverged into different directions.

This monumental discovery helps us to identify what makes humans unique; like how are genes are involved in cognitive development, metabolism, skull structure, and the skin and how that differs from Neanderthals and our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

The full study was detailed in the May 7 issue of the journal Science.