The complete mitochondrial genome of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal has been sequenced. The findings open a window into the Neanderthals’ past and helps answer lingering questions about our relationship to them.
For the first time, we’ve built a sequence from ancient DNA that is essentially without error,” said Richard Green of Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. » Full text »
Green et al. (2008) A Complete Neandertal Mitochondrial Genome Sequence Determined by High-Throughput Sequencing. Cell, 2008; 134 (3): 416
Science Daily write-up: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807130824.htm
Journal article abstract:
http://www.cell.com/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0092867408007733
The full article .PDF is available here:
http://download.cell.com/pdfs/0092-8674/PIIS0092867408007733.pdf
It’s a nice paper. Cheers!
It seems they also pretty much excluded Neanderthals from Homo sapien sapien lineage, as in any significant number (if any) of offspring from mating between Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal. I know this has been a question for some time.
deadman_932 Thank you for the links
Jonathan: My pleasure. Lemme climb up on that soapbox a second.
Lots of people might think that – in the big scheme of things – this study doesn’t mean a lot. Issues like wars, environmental problems, resource depletion, etc. are more important than this Neanderthal paper. And they’d be right.
But WE as a species, WE can be affected by it.
Just 40 years ago, this was the stuff of Science Fiction stories. We knew about Homo sapiens (us) and we knew a little about Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (them). We knew about the structure of DNA from the 1950’s But we didn’t know what relationship the two species might have.
This paper helps us to figure out who we are a little better.
In his diary, the painter Paul Gauguin once wrote that three really important questions we face in terms of survival are; “Who are we? Where did we come from, and where are we going?” Well, this paper helps clarify that. We know a little more about who we are and where we came from as a single species living on this planet that we all have to share.
And the truth of the matter is that one is more likely to share with (and not kill, ignore or mistreat) other humans that one recognizes deep down as kin. Family.
This paper helps paint a picture — a verifiable, testable, picture of the human family. And that’s no small feat.
Cheers!
Hah, my posts would be a lot better if I learned to close the italics.
About 4 yrs ago, while covering the evolution of modern humans in an evolutionary biology subject, I got very interested, and VERY bogged down in the Out of Africa vs. Multiregional (plus variations) debates.
I spent hours upon hours reading papers.
This was to the detriment of all other subject matter I was covering at the time (incl. my core molec bio and micro bio subjects) so I had to will myself to be much less interested and distracted by it all back then. I haven’t really read much in that area since.
I think it’ll be safe to update myself again now. 🙂