Neanderthals . . . not like us?

According to a BBC report:

Scientists studying the DNA of Neanderthals say they can find no evidence that this ancient species ever interbred with modern humans.

But our closest ancestors may well have been able to speak as well as us, said Prof Svante Paabo from Germany's Max Planck Institute.

He was speaking in Chicago, US, where he announced the "first draft" of a complete Neanderthal genome.

The genetics information has been gleaned from fossils found in Croatia.

Prof Svante Paabo confirmed that Neanderthals shared the FOXP2 gene associated with speech and language in modern humans.

A total of three billion "letters", covering 60% of the Neanderthal genome, have been sequenced by scientists from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences Corporation, in Branford, Connecticut.

The majority of the sequence comes from bones from Vindija Cave in Croatia.

The draft genome can give us clues to the genetic regions which make us "uniquely human", Prof Paabo told BBC News.

"It was always a dream to look at the DNA of our closest evolutionary relatives.

"Now that we have the Neanderthal genome, we can look for areas in the human genome where a change seems to have swept rapidly through us since we separated from Neanderthals.

"There, something special may have happened in us. The cool thing is, now that we have the whole genome, we can look for these changes without bias."

. . .

Since Neanderthals lived side by side with modern humans in Europe for many thousands of years, it has been speculated that we may have inherited some Neanderthal DNA in our genome today, thanks to interbreeding.




But Professor Paabo's team have found no evidence for this.

. . .

Overall, it seems that Neanderthals have contributed, at most, a "very limited" fraction of the variation found in contemporary human populations, said Prof Paabo.

"What is exciting now, is that we are beginning to look the other way - from early modern humans into Neanderthals."

. . .

Prof Paabo said the team did not expect to find any clues which might help solve the riddle of the Neanderthals' demise.

"I don't think they became extinct due to something in their genome," he said.

"It was clearly something in their interaction with the environment or with modern humans that caused them to be extinct.

"That will not be something you can see from their DNA sequence."

And Prof Paabo was quick to pour cold water on any suggestion that the genome sequence would facilitate the cloning of a Neanderthal.

"We are talking about a very complex mammal," said the 53-year-old.

"I don't think that technology will improve fast enough to make this possible in my lifetime.

"It is more in the realm of science fiction than science."

There's a lot more detailed information at the link.

However, I suspect that Prof. Paabo may not be able to see the wood for the trees. I think there's plenty of evidence that Neanderthal genes are alive and well in modern humans: and cloning them might not be necessary, given that they're still reproducing.

Here's video evidence to prove it!

Peter