Of all the lectures and sources of materials we observed and read this week I found that the video titled “The Neanderthal In Us,” although brief, highlighted some very fascinating discoveries made about the history of the Neanderthals and their interactions with early humans. The DNA evidence presented in the video revealed several interesting facts and theories about the life of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals. I believe that the existence of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans is truly an amazing find which begets many more questions about the interactions between early Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals.
In this video, scientists have decoded the Neanderthal DNA and discovered traces of their genome in modern humans. According to Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, “Our genome is a kind of mosaic…When I come across one chromosome, I’m in one part more closely related to you than to another person. Then as we go further, I’m perhaps more closely related to some other person than to you and then more closely related to someone in Africa than you, and now and again more closely related to a Neanderthal then to you. What these results show is that this large mosaic…contains parts which are from the Neanderthals.” I thought Pääbo did a spectacular job putting such a complex revelation into terms that can be understood by a broad audience.
In the video, we see how the scientists found this DNA to decode through the well-preserved fossils of Neanderthals discovered in Germany. Due to the fact that these fossilized remains were in such good condition thanks to the limestone cave they were found in, scientists were able to obtain DNA for their research. With this, they also took DNA from people all over the world and with vastly different backgrounds, a diverse pool to draw from, in order to compare the newly decoded Neanderthal DNA with that of modern humans. The results proved that “Neanderthals and early humans mixed.” While that is a truly incredible discovery on its own, it was not the only one made.
When comparing these samples, the researchers realized that this DNA was not inherited evenly across the globe. While the Neanderthal genome was present in both Europeans and Asians, it was notably absent in Africans. How exactly this distribution happened so unevenly and also in places where Neanderthals are not known to have lived is just one more scientific mystery left to be answered. Pääbo theorizes that the “mixing” between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals happened very early in our history and probably near Croatia and the surrounding Middle East. This follows with the thought that early humans left Africa and migrated to the Middle East where they then encountered Neanderthals before spreading throughout the rest of the world, collecting some Neaderthal DNA along the way. To me, this theory makes sense and certainly keeps in line with the Out of Africa theory as well.
I found this video to be short and to the point but completely packed with information. The way the Pääbo and the rest of his team used fossils to uncover the DNA necessary to decode the genome of an entire species is awe inspiring. Thanks to them, many answers, and many new questions, about the life of early humans have been shared with us.
8 thoughts on “Week Six — Neanderthal Genome”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi Cait, I thought your post was very well written, informative, and enjoyable to read. I also thought that the video “The Neanderthal In Us” was very interesting and revealed a lot of important discoveries. I also wrote some information on this video and the link between Neanderthals and homo sapiens in my blog post. I found it very interesting how the fossilized remains were in a good condition so that the DNA could be used for research. I thought the research that they did on how close different people from different backgrounds and places are to Neanderthals was eye opening as well. It was cool to see that it wasn’t equal across the world and that some groups are more closely related to Neanderthals than others.
Hi Cait, I also thought your blog post was written very well and was informative and in-depth! I also wrote about Neanderthals this week because I thought it was all so interesting how they are related so close to it and also found that video very informative, I learned a lot and felt like it took everything from lecture and made it more clear! Isn’t it crazy that they found such good remains because of the cave they were found in? That was many years ago and with all the changes, that’s neat to find something that decodes so much of our questions we have and because of this we learned so much! I also think the question on why there was unequal distribution with Neanderthals is fascinating and hope maybe one day soon, someone will figure it out. It makes me start guessing possibilities that may have happened because I am so curious!
Hi Cait, thank you for sharing such a thoughtful post for this week’s content. I think you did such a great job of getting your point across in a very well-written manner. I like that you focused on one of the videos, “The Neanderthal in Us”. I also enjoyed this video very much, and I think it sort of summed up but also added some new information to the content for this week. I like how you made good use of quotes from the video in your blog so I could easily recall the certain part you were discussing. I think the analogy between the human genome and a mosaic is very accurate and simple to understand for everyone. I really enjoyed your post, thank you!
Cait,
In one of my classes from the past Spring semester, Introduction to Archaeology, we spoke about the presence of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans. I can relate to your interest in this from that, and I agree that it certainly raises a lot of questions about the lifestyle of our ancestors and how different species of “us” related to one another. I really like how you call this discovery a “revelation,” because I certainly think of it as humbling for what I would assume are very similar trains of thought between you and I about this! In further agreement with your thoughts about the video from this week about Neanderthal DNA and such, I thought it was cool that the research team was able to essentially pinpoint on the map where they thought the intermixing occurred.
Hi Cait!
I also focused on the Neanderthals this week because I found it interesting how closely related modern humans are to them but also different. I agree that the DNA evidence make everything much more interesting as well. I find it so intriguing that scientists could discover that Neanderthals and early humans mixed. Especially since, like what you said, the DNA was found because the fossils of the Neanderthals were preserved from the Limestone caves. In addition, I like that you highlighted the fact that Neanderthal DNA was not found in Africa. Moreover, that they were found primarily in Europeans and Asians. This then led to scientists believing that early humans left Africa and migrated to the Middle East, where they met the Neanderthals.
Hello Cait!
I also enjoyed learning about how our DNA was connected to Neanderthal DNA. I never realized that humans and Neanderthals mixed before- this discovery really was a huge find!We are very lucky that the fossils of Neanderthals were very well preserved. The human genome really interests me as well. Just because we look a certain way does not necessarily mean that we are related to them or have the same chromosomes. I like that you mentioned where the discoveries were made. Neanderthals really showed us a lot about this. I think that in the future, more discoveries of Neanderthal remains could aid in discovering the entire history of our evolution. Maybe we will find even more relation to them.
Thank you for sharing
Hi Cait!
I enjoyed reading your blog post as you went really into depth at the topic at hand. I also wrote about the Neanderthals, and thought that the video the “Neanderthal in Us” was very interesting as well as super informative. I think it is so cool that not only that the fossils were so well preserved, but that scientists were able to get so much information from these fossils. I also thought that the videos highlighted just how similar we are to Neanderthals. Like you stated, although this video is short, it helps us understand, whether we are in this field or not just how closely related we may be to species we never even knew about.
Hey Cait!
I enjoyed reading your post and I agree to a lot of points of your post as well. I learned many things about the Neanderthals, and I especially found interest in the video “The Neanderthal In Us” in common with you. It was interesting idea that Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said Then I come across one chromosome, I’m in one part more closely related to you than to another person. Then as we go further, I’m perhaps more closely related to some other person than to you and then more closely related to someone in Africa than you, and now and again more closely related to a Neanderthal then to you. I had never been educated or heard about the idea behind the Neanderthal chromosomes and modern humans. I did not understand how the neanderthal DNA had spread out to all over the world from Africa to Asia It was surprising idea that there were another hominin that could speak a linguistically defined language with sophisticated syntax in the past regarding the discovery of Foxp2 gene. It was really interested to the idea that there was a social relationship between homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and it might lead the extinction of Neanderthals. I believe that there were some sort of violent conflict between Neanderthals and Homosapiens, and homo sapiens probably had dominance over the other because they had certain ability to socialize and form a group.