Neandertals split earlier than expected

[MrBishop]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have sequenced DNA from the leg bone of a Neanderthal man who died 38,000 years ago and said on Wednesday it shows the Neanderthals are truly distant relatives of modern humans who interbred rarely, if at all, with our own immediate ancestors.

They estimate that modern humans and Neanderthals split from a common ancestor at least 370,000 years ago, and possibly 500,000 years ago, although we share 99.95 percent of our DNA.


"We see no evidence of mixing 40,000, 30,000 years ago in Europe. We don't exclude it, but see no evidence," Edward Rubin of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, who led one study, told reporters.


This conflicts with some evidence from other researchers, including a team who said earlier this month that humans may have inherited a brain gene from Neanderthals.

Family tree pruned

 

[2minkey]

calculations based on "genetic clocks" and similar methods are rarely what they're cracked up to be.

the interpretation of genetic whatnot is often based more on political agenda than 'objective' science, and thar ain't really such a thing as that.

there's a bunch of real fossil record examples of intermediate forms between neandertals and "modern" humans that have been found in caves in the middle east.

it's mildly interesting that neandertals had, on average, a brain 50ccs bigger than modern humans.