Were the Neanderthal our ancestors?

These ancient hominids with brains as large or larger than ours went extinct about 35,000 years ago. Some think that they bred with European Cro-Magnon humans and thus made a contribution to the human race. Recent analysis of ancient DNA from says no. The first Neanderthal DNA to be sequenced was mitochondrial DNA which exists in 100-1000 copies per cell and is only inherited from the mother with no contribution from the father. Because of the high copy number and short length it is the most likely to survive for thousands of years. The mitochondrial DNA sequences suggested that there is no close relationship and that our common ancestor was in the distant past. As there is only one Y chromosome per male cell it is much more difficult to recover from ancient sources. Svante Paabo from the Max Planck institute in Germany used a new technique that is much more tolerant of the degradation found in ancient DNA to sequence 75,000 base pairs from non-mitochondrial nuclear Neanderthal DNA. The specimen was a 45,000 old male from Croatia. Some of the sequences were from the individual’s Y chromosome. The data suggested that Neanderthals and humans had a common ancestor over 315,000 years ago, long before modern humans walked the earth.

A note. The Journal Nature wanted $30 for a one page synopsis of this presentation. I was able to get it for free at the U. Mass. Medical School library but of course had to physically be in the library. This system is outrageous as all paper journals are out of date and don’t have the capabilities of the electronic versions. Tax payers in the U.S. and in this case, Germany, pay for the research, travel and publication costs and then any one who wants to use the information has to pay again. Hopefully, paper journals will die a quick and permanent death and we will not have to pay twice for the electronic versions.