Megan ByrneWe Are Not Neanderthal
October 29th 2006 03:27
New discoveries and studies are suggesting that Neanderthals and humans had a common ancestor, but it was about 400,000 years ago. This indicates that the hairy Eurasian hunters had an early genetic split from modern humans and backs up the idea that the Neanderthal were not Homo sapiens. Scientists in another study, however (see Finlayson study below) believe that humans and Neanderthals shared a common ancestor and overlapped for several thousand years in Europe.
Geneticist James Noonan, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, extracted DNA from fossilized Neanderthal bones. His early results indicate very little genetic contribution from Neanderthal to human.
Noonan’s research was presented earlier this month to the American Society of Human Genetics. His study is significant because he analyzed nuclear DNA, rather than mitochondrial DNA. Nuclear DNA analysis is superior to mitrochondrial because the method yields more information, such as how language and cognition are encoded.
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At the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, genetic anthropologist, Svante Paabo has extracted and is studying DNA from the bones of a Neanderthal who lived in Croatia about 45,000 years ago.
This analysis, he said, “compliments the study of fossils and the archaeological record of Neanderthal behavior. All this evidence allows us to understand exactly how Neanderthals lived and adapted to a changing world that eventually included our species”.
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In Gorham Cave in Gibraltar, a team from the Gibraltar Museum have found artifacts suggesting the Neanderthals survived as a species 2,000 years longer than previous information indicated; they were probably here until at least 28,000 years ago.
Clive Finlayson, an anthropologist at the Gibraltar leads the team studying artifacts found in the cave. The teams findings were reported on the web site of the journal, Nature.
Finlayson said the oldest deposits in the cave date back to 120,000 years ago and, according to radiocarbon dating results, the Neanderthals visited it repeatedly until at least 28,000 years ago and perhaps as recently as 24,000 years ago.
Geneticist James Noonan, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, extracted DNA from fossilized Neanderthal bones. His early results indicate very little genetic contribution from Neanderthal to human.
Noonan’s research was presented earlier this month to the American Society of Human Genetics. His study is significant because he analyzed nuclear DNA, rather than mitochondrial DNA. Nuclear DNA analysis is superior to mitrochondrial because the method yields more information, such as how language and cognition are encoded.
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At the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, genetic anthropologist, Svante Paabo has extracted and is studying DNA from the bones of a Neanderthal who lived in Croatia about 45,000 years ago.
A Depiction of the Neanderthal
This analysis, he said, “compliments the study of fossils and the archaeological record of Neanderthal behavior. All this evidence allows us to understand exactly how Neanderthals lived and adapted to a changing world that eventually included our species”.
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In Gorham Cave in Gibraltar, a team from the Gibraltar Museum have found artifacts suggesting the Neanderthals survived as a species 2,000 years longer than previous information indicated; they were probably here until at least 28,000 years ago.
Clive Finlayson, an anthropologist at the Gibraltar leads the team studying artifacts found in the cave. The teams findings were reported on the web site of the journal, Nature.
Finlayson said the oldest deposits in the cave date back to 120,000 years ago and, according to radiocarbon dating results, the Neanderthals visited it repeatedly until at least 28,000 years ago and perhaps as recently as 24,000 years ago.
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