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Modern human and Neandertal - are we one species? |
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Written by Dr. H. P. Bustami
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Saturday, 22 May 2010 |
The news was striking: scientists analyzed Neandertal genome and
compared it to that of modern human populations. Together with an
international research team, researchers at the Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig present an initial draft of
the genome sequence of the Neandertal, a human form which died out some
30.000 years ago. Initial analyses of four billion base pairs of
Neandertal DNA indicate that Neandertals left their mark in the genomes
of some modern humans. Our ancestors and Neandertals had sex together.
Amazingly only humans from non-Africans show some Neandertal genome.
This provides additional proof for the archeological findings that modern humans and Neandertals lived closely together in the Middle East for more than 50.000 years. Via the land bridge between Africa and Asia modern humans left Africa and spread over the world. Neandertals never reached Africa but developed from Homo erectus who left 1 Million years ago Africa. In European and Chinese populations between 1-4% of the genome are of Neandetal origin.
The researchers offer a plausible explanation for this finding. One of the leading scientists Svante P
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