Posted on 06/23/2015 11:44:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
DNA analysis of a 40,000-year-old human jawbone from Romania suggests that an early modern group of humans interbred with Neanderthals soon after their first arrival in Europe.
Researchers have concluded that an early modern human who lived in present-day Romania about 40,000 years ago had a Neanderthal ancestor who lived just 4 to 6 generations back in the individual's family tree.
Co-led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator David Reich at Harvard Medical School, along with researchers at the Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins in Beijing, China, researchers were able to tease out and analyze a small percentage of the DNA remnants found in a 37,000 to 42,000-year-old modern human jaw bone originally found in 2002 by cavers and archaeologists in the Oase Cave in south-western Romania...
Trace amounts of ancient DNA can be recovered from bones as old as the Oase jawbone, but to analyze it, that ancient DNA must be sifted out of an overwhelming amount of DNA from other organisms. When Qiaomei Fu, who was a graduate student in Pääbo's lab, obtained DNA from the bone, most of it was from microbes that lived in the soil where the bone was found. Of the fraction of a percent that was human DNA, most had been introduced by people who handled the bone after its discovery...
"The sample is more closely related to Neanderthals than any other modern human we've ever looked at before," Reich says. "We estimate that six to nine percent of its genome is from Neanderthals. This is an unprecedented amount. Europeans and East Asians today have more like two percent."
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
For their analysis the researchers used 35 milligrams of bone powder from the jawbone. Courtesy MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology/Paabo
The Neandertal Enigma"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
in local libraries
HA! There are still some alive today. They seem to migrate to positions of power.
But are they 100% Neanderthal?
97% from what I can tell
The chimpanzee is 97% plus genetically identical to the human.
Then they must be more. Sometimes I see scabs on their knuckles.
Wouldn’t it have been pretty darn cold in Romania 40,000 years ago?
We Are Neanderthals.
woman is 99%plus same as a man. viva la difference!
just the brain, heart, and a few fun parts.
‘Virtual fossil’ reveals last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/virtual-fossil-reveals-last-common-ancestor-of-humans-and-neanderthals
http://www.archaeology.org/news/4016-151218-ancestor-virtual-fossil
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.