Neanderthal genome complete

[PeterMP]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18869-neanderthal-genome-reveals-interbreeding-with-humans.html

"They are so closely related that some researchers group them and us as a single species. "I would see them as a form of humans that are bit more different than humans are today, but not much," says Svante Pääbo, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, whose team sequenced the Neanderthal genome."

"Any human whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has a little Neanderthal in them – between 1 and 4 per cent of their genome, Pääbo's team estimates. In other words, humans and Neanderthals had sex and had hybrid offspring. A small amount of that genetic mingling survives in "non-Africans" today: Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, which is why sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA."

Those appear to be the big finding. There are about 80 changes in the protein coding regions that cause amino acid changes.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/710

[Larry]

Between 1 and 4 percent match somehow equals "so close they're the same species"?

(Also waiting for the show when Tailgate gets hold of "everybody in the world is part Neanderthal except Africans". Should be a classic.)

[Bang]

Well, I never once denied my proud Neanderthal heritage. I proudly fly animal skins outside of my house, and I gotta say, bashing women over the hat with a club is a GREAT way to meet chicks.

But in all seriousness, as a red-head this is interesting to me,, they say we're more closeley related to neanderthal.

~Bang

[PokerPacker]

Well, I never once denied my proud Neanderthal heritage. I proudly fly animal skins outside of my house, and I gotta say, bashing women over the hat with a club is a GREAT way to meet chicks.

But in all seriousness, as a red-head this is interesting to me,, they say we're more closeley related to neanderthal.

~Bang

Well that makes sense what with that whole lack-of-soul thing

[dfitzo53]

Between 1 and 4 percent match somehow equals "so close they're the same species"?

If I understand your post correctly, you're misunderstanding the finding. It does not mean that we share 1-4% of our DNA with Neanderthals and the other 96-99% is different.

It means that for any given person of non-African descent, 1-4% of that individual's genome has been specifically inherited from Neanderthals.

Most geneticists will tell you that we share over 90% of our DNA with chimpanzees, so we're sharing even more than that with Neanderthals.

[NavyDave]

But how does this explain the instinct the fellas have to pull women by the hair and sistas who love being pulled by the hair during err certain interactions??

Does this also mean that the brothas shouldn't have a MAN Cave?

[Reic]

ok, now the human genome project confuses me because it states everyone on earth can be traced back to a group of people living in Africa.

unless, the african people shagged neanderthals.

get it get it.

[Thiebear]

I heard a scientist say: they lasted 500,000 years!

to say they faded out and we succeeded to a bit premature..

If were still around 300,000 years from now we can talk about winning.

1.8 Million years ago:

A reconstruction of Homo erectus evolves in Africa. Homo erectus would bear a striking resemblance to modern humans, but is still not allowed serve outwardly in the military.

[PeterMP]

Between 1 and 4 percent match somehow equals "so close they're the same species"?

(Also waiting for the show when Tailgate gets hold of "everybody in the world is part Neanderthal except Africans". Should be a classic.)

~90% of the genes are identical in humans, chimps, and humans so it would be misleading to say the genes came from either of the three (they are older). There is another percentage that is the same is Neanderthals and Africans, but not chimps. Then there is some small amount that is different between Neanderthalls and africans. Of this, some made it into modern European (and some Asian (they talk about Chinese in the paper)) genomes. That part is 1-4% of the modern European genome.

**EDIT**

That's not quite correct because some of that is identical to Africans. Let's say that we have a gene with 100 bases. They believe based on that gene's sequence that it came from Neanderthals. Then all of that 100 bases came from Neanderthals, but much (almost all, but not all) of that gene will be identical to modern Africans.

So it will contribute a "large" percentage of the that which came from Neanderthals in modern Europeans, but modest differences between such people and modern Africans.

[Smoot Point Really]

[PeterMP]

ok, now the human genome project confuses me because it states everyone on earth can be traced back to a group of people living in Africa.

unless, the african people shagged neanderthals.

get it get it.

They are saying that is likely an overly simplistic model. There may have been a group of people living in Africa and spread over the world, but then at least some of them mated with Neanderthals to give us some of the modern human populations.

There are other possibilites.

[Prosperity]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18869-neanderthal-genome-reveals-interbreeding-with-humans.html

"They are so closely related that some researchers group them and us as a single species. "I would see them as a form of humans that are bit more different than humans are today, but not much," says Svante Pääbo, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, whose team sequenced the Neanderthal genome."

"Any human whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has a little Neanderthal in them – between 1 and 4 per cent of their genome, Pääbo's team estimates. In other words, humans and Neanderthals had sex and had hybrid offspring. A small amount of that genetic mingling survives in "non-Africans" today: Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, which is why sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA."

Those appear to be the big finding. There are about 80 changes in the protein coding regions that cause amino acid changes.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/710

I've been reading a sci-fi trilogy based on the disappearance of either homo sapiens or neanderthals and this kind of ruins it for me :mad:

[NavyDave]

everyone on earth can be traced back to a group of people living in Africa.

I should stop teasing West Virginia and Kentucky since they are only embracing the practices of Ancient Africa.

[Reic]

I should stop teasing West Virginia and Kentucky since they are only embracing the practices of Ancient Africa.

well, with the human genome product, it says we can be traced back to two, but there were estimated to be about 10,000 people living on earth at that time, so I have a hard time embracing it fully.

But as PeterMP mentioned, that is believed to be an overly simplistic model, which I will have to agree with, with 10,000 people living on earth, and now up to 4% of the human genome matching neanderthals, I think we have to dig a little deeper into evolutionary history.