[wendy1946]

Alas, "they" don't describe Neanderthal DNA as halfway between us and the chimps.

Yeah they do:

The Neanderthal sequences were substantially different from modern human mtDNA. Researchers compared the Neanderthal to modern human and chimpanzee sequences. Most human sequences differ from each other by on average 8.0 substitutions, while the human and chimpanzee sequences differ by about 55.0 substitutions. The Neanderthal and modern human sequences differed by approximately 27.2 substitutions. A second mtDNA sequence, announced in 2000, was derived from a 29,000 year old Neanderthal found in Mezmaiskaya Cave, in the Caucasus, Russia. Although the Mezmaiskaya Cave sequence was slightly different than the Feldhofer Neanderthal, the two Neanderthal mtDNA sequences were distinct from those of modern humans. These results confirmed the earlier study that showed that Neanderthals were unlikely to have contributed to the modern human genome.

Yuppy "scientists" and evolosers KNOW they have a problem with this stuff i.e. that all other hominids were further removed from US THAN the neanderthal and that if we couldn't be descended from the Neanderthal, we could not be descended from any of them; that's the rational for the revisionism which you're seeing in these current articles.

[muawiyah]

That’s MtDNA stuff. Now we are talking about full genome ~ not just mitochondria.