With the release of the draft sequence of the Neanderthal Genome, the questions about our evolution and our relationship with our bigger-body and bigger-brain cousins have gained new life. Comparative analysis have shown that the two Homo species are closer than previously supposed and that the two groups may have interbred before the Neanderthal extinction. The last studies in the field support the theory that less than 100,000 years ago Neanderthals and the ancestors of all non-African Homo sapiens lived side by side, and a few of them may have shacked up. So some of our ancestor may share Neanderthal DNA and some of us are more "Neanderthalian" than others...
What do you think about yourself? Do you feel like a big and smart H. neanderthalensis or just a common H. sapiens?
You may not be so interested, but Eric Durand, formerly at the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California (Berkley) and now employed by 23andMe, took this question very seriously. He developed a bioinformatic tool to determine exactly how much Neanderthal is in you! This will definitely take the ancestry genetic test package offered by 23andMe to the ultimate level! As trivial as this could seem, the new interest in Neanderthal genetic testing has captured the attention of the Nature Blog, as you can read here.
Additional readings: Sleeping with the Enemy, The New Yorker; The Perfect Gift This Holiday Season: The Neanderthal Test, Discovery Magazine.
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