It was recently announced that Swedish Scientist Svante Paabo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for work on the DNA of Neanderthals.
Neanderthals hung out in Europe several thousand years ago and eventual went extinct, but not before hooking up with Homo-Sapiens, who are usually thought of as modern ‘European’ humans.
Scientist Svante Paabo’s work shows both groups, Neanderthals and Home-Sapiens, co-existed, and more, in their geographic region of the world. His conclusion and the result: people outside Africa have 1% to 2% of the Neanderthal genes. They had children together.
Neanderthals weren’t big travellers. They never visited sub-Saharan African so didn’t co-exist or have ‘relations’ with those folks.
Researchers Identified a New Group of Humans – The Denisovans
Paabo and his team also recovered DNA from a finger bone that was discovered in Siberia, allowing for the sequencing of genes.
The success led to the identification of a ‘sister group’ known as ‘Denisovan’. The research team found that 6% of modern day folks in Asia and Southeast Asia carry Denisovan genes and that Neanderthals and Denisonvans split about 600,000 years ago. (You have to wonder who said what to cause the ‘split.’)
Musings
I had a buddy in Finnegan, Alberta who went ‘Neanderthal’ after a few too many beers. Now I know the cause – his 2% Neanderthal Genes.
