http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126611419
And here's a nice website by Science magazine:
And here's a nice website by Science magazine:
http://www.sciencemag.org/special/neandertal/feature/index.html
The website points out that "because Neandertals are much closer kin to us than are chimpanzees, which diverged from the human lineage 5 to 7 million years ago, matching Neandertal DNA against our own has the potential to reveal genetic changes that help define who we are."
The authors of the study think that non-African human genomes may have about 1 - 4 % Neandertal genes. (The mixing with the Neandertals could only have happened after humans left Africa, because Neandertals were never in Africa.)
This is particularly interesting to our family because we have a long-running family joke that my husband and his relatives are Neandertals. He first became aware of his Neandertal characteristics in an anthropology class in college when the professor said that the strong brow ridge and occipital bun were distinguishing characteristics. (The occipital bun is a little knob at the back of the skull. His is very pronounced, but my kids have them too.) When my daughter was 3 months old, the doctor was so concerned about her fontanels not closing properly that she sent her for genetic testing (which I am still mad about because the insensitive doctor was clearly hoping that she had discovered a serious genetic problem). But when the geneticist met with us, she took pictures of my husband's head and palms because she found him so interesting ... has to be those Neandertal genes!
The website points out that "because Neandertals are much closer kin to us than are chimpanzees, which diverged from the human lineage 5 to 7 million years ago, matching Neandertal DNA against our own has the potential to reveal genetic changes that help define who we are."
The authors of the study think that non-African human genomes may have about 1 - 4 % Neandertal genes. (The mixing with the Neandertals could only have happened after humans left Africa, because Neandertals were never in Africa.)
This is particularly interesting to our family because we have a long-running family joke that my husband and his relatives are Neandertals. He first became aware of his Neandertal characteristics in an anthropology class in college when the professor said that the strong brow ridge and occipital bun were distinguishing characteristics. (The occipital bun is a little knob at the back of the skull. His is very pronounced, but my kids have them too.) When my daughter was 3 months old, the doctor was so concerned about her fontanels not closing properly that she sent her for genetic testing (which I am still mad about because the insensitive doctor was clearly hoping that she had discovered a serious genetic problem). But when the geneticist met with us, she took pictures of my husband's head and palms because she found him so interesting ... has to be those Neandertal genes!
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