Neandertal Genetic material found in mitochondria, the organelles that generate energy for the cell.mtDNA

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The table above shows the The order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein molecule.sequence differences found between modern humans and the four Neandertal remains analyzed to date. On average, the Neandertal The order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein molecule.sequences differed from the modern human The order of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule, or the order of amino acids in a protein molecule.sequence by 25 Two nucleotides on opposite complementary DNA or RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds.base pairs. By comparison, the average variation among modern humans is only 8 Two nucleotides on opposite complementary DNA or RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds.base pairs, all the Two nucleotides on opposite complementary DNA or RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds.base pairs of which are at different Multiple places on a chromosome where specific genes or genetic markers are located, a kind of address for the gene.loci than the Neandertal differences. The analysis of the second sample was extremely important, since it was dated at 29,000 years ago - only 1000 years before the last Neandertal disappeared. If Neanderthals and humans had interbred, one should have expected to see this in the last remnants of the Neandertals. In addition, since the Neandertal fossils were separated geographically by over 2,500 km, it shows that Neandertals were a homogeneous species. The researchers conclusion: "Neanderthals were not our ancestors" - a quote from the authors of the first study. In fact, the differences between modern humans and Neandertals were so great that calculations indicated that the last common ancestor (according to evolutionary theory) must have existed 550,000 to 690,000 years ago (first study) and 365,000 to 853,000 years ago (second study).

References

1. Krings, M., A. Stone, R. W. Schmitz, H. Krainitzki, M. Stoneking, and S. Paabo. 1997. Neandertal Deoxyribonucleic acid: the chemical inside the nucleus of a cell that carries the genetic instructions for making living organisms.DNA Sequences and the Origin of Modern Humans. Cell 90: 19-30.

2. Ovchinnikov, I.V., A. Gotherstrom, G. P. Romanovak, V. M. Kharitonov, K. Liden, and W. Goodwin. 2000. Molecular analysis of Neanderthal Deoxyribonucleic acid: the chemical inside the nucleus of a cell that carries the genetic instructions for making living organisms.DNA from the northern Caucasus. Nature 404: 490-493.

3. Krings, M., C. Capelli, F. Tschentscher, H. Geisert, S. Meyer, A. von Haeseler, K. Grossschmidt, G. Possnert, M. Paunovic, and S. Pääbo. 2000. A view of Neandertal genetic diversity Nature Genetics 26: 144-146.

4. Schmitz, R. W., Serre, D., Bonani, G., Feine, S., Hillgruber, F., Krainitzki, H., Pääbo, S. & Smith, F. H. 2002. The Neandertal type site revisited: Interdisciplinary investigations of skeletal remains from the Neander Valley, Germany. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 99: 13342-13347