First step to resurrecting a Neaderthal? - First draft of Neanderthal genome is unveiled

NewScientist - February 12, 2009 by Ewen Callaway

This Neanderthal skeleton was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley in Mettmann (Image: Action Press/Rex Features)

The first draft of the genome of a 38,000 year-old Neanderthal is complete, scientists announced today.

Early glimpses of the genome, which was sequenced by Svante Pääbo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues, have already cast new light on the ancient human species that went extinct more than 25,000 years ago.

"This will be the first time the entire genome of an extinct organism has been sequenced," Pääbo told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Chicago.

Now study of the more complete genome will allow scientists to examine Neanderthals' relationship with modern humans as never before.

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