Thursday, March 22, 2018

LEIPZIG, GERMANY—Seeker reports that scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have sequenced the genomes of five Neanderthals who lived between 39,000 and 47,000 years ago. The samples were obtained from the remains of male and female individuals, which were unearthed in Belgium, France, Croatia, and the Russian Caucasus. “The addition of the genome sequences of these five Neanderthals presented in this study doubles the number of genomes available,” explained Mateja Hajdinjak of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The samples were taken from bones and teeth, ground into a fine powder, and treated with a mild hypochlorite solution to remove any contaminants. Analysis of the genomes revealed that these five Neanderthals shared a common ancestor some 150,000 years ago with another Neanderthal individual whose genome was sequenced from remains found in Siberia. Researcher Svante Paabo added that the new research supports previous findings suggesting that Neanderthals and Denisovans shared an unidentified common ancestor some 400,000 years ago. To read about a new method for recovering genetic material left behind by early humans, go to “Caveman Genetics.”