February 12, 2009
the neanderthal genome
Using DNA fragments from three Croatian fossils, scientists have mapped 60 percent of the Neanderthal Genome.
“The Neanderthal genome sequence will clarify the evolutionary relationship between humans and Neanderthals as well as help identify those genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world,” Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said in a press release.
“These DNA sequences can now be compared to the previously sequenced human and chimpanzee genomes in order to arrive at some initial insights into how the genome of this extinct form differed from that of modern humans.”
Research suggests that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and humans lived about 660,000 years ago.
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This is cool. I miss the Neanderthals.