Neanderthal genes ‘survive in us’

| 06/05/2010

(BBC): Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study. The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance. The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome – the "instruction manual" describing how these ancient humans were put together. The genomes of 1% to 4% of people in Eurasia come from Neanderthals. But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.

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