Svante Pääbo, at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, has been studying Neanderthal DNA. His findings have shown that Neanderthals didn’t become completely extinct after all, but became
assimilated into Homo sapiens (that's modern man, ie you) through inter-breeding.
Svante Pääbo's results suggest that between 1 – 4 % of the DNA of all humans who aren’t
sub-Saharan Africans has its root in Neanderthals.
I suppose I ought to say here that Dr Andrea Manica of Cambridge University believes that any similarities between
human and Neanderthal DNA is probably the result of a single shared ancestor half
a million years ago.
I feel like that about the ox bone sometimes but only very rarely! Still, proud to have some Neanderthal DNA in my makeup.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Health and Safety regulations have actually banned the sale of the leg bones of oxen from supermarkets for just this reason?
ReplyDeleteNo?
...oh, all right, they haven't, then. But it wouldn't surprise me!