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Neanderthal genome yields insights into human evolution

Ed Green holds replicas of Neanderthal bones and a Neanderthal skull. (Photo by Jim MacKenzie)

After extracting ancient DNA from the 40,000-year-old bones of Neanderthals, scientists have obtained a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome and found evidence that Neanderthals interbred with early modern humans.

"We can now say that, in all probability, there was gene flow from Neanderthals to modern humans," said the paper's first author, Richard E. (Ed) Green of UC Santa Cruz. [More]

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