Kewl
Posted on | November 25, 2006
The mapping of the Neanderthal genome is about one percent complete, and so far it appears that we are not descended from that species–nor is there yet any genetic sign of interbreeding.
All told, the team was able to put together about 1 million letters of Neanderthal DNA, according to the paper in Nature. The human genome was used as a guide to place the small pieces. The entire Neanderthal genome is thought to be about 3 billion letters long, the same as for humans.
Parallel work, using DNA from the same Neanderthal bone, was done at the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, both in California. Led by scientist Edward M. Rubin, the team used a slightly different technique and generated about 65,000 letters of Neanderthal DNA.
The two teams came up with different dates for when Neanderthals split from the human line: about 500,000 years ago, and about 700,000. But the estimates are within each other’s margin of error, according to the papers.
Modern humans and H. neanderthalensis would instead have evolved separately from a common ancestor a half-million years ago or more. That ancestor was probably not Homo erectus, to the chagrin of fifth-grade boys everywhere, but was possibly H. antecessor.
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