Neanderthal genetics
[6] A significantly deeper time of parallelism, combined with repeated early admixture events, was calculated by Rogers et al.
[17] In July 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would sequence the Neanderthal genome over the next two years.
"[19] In the same publication, it was disclosed by Svante Pääbo that in the previous work at the Max Planck Institute, "Contamination was indeed an issue," and they eventually realised that 11% of their sample was modern human DNA.
[20] However, more recent studies have concluded that gene flow between Neanderthals and AMH occurred multiple times over thousands of years.
[13] Neanderthal-inherited genetic material is found in all non- Sub Saharan African populations and was initially reported to comprise 1 to 4 percent of the genome.
[26] Modern human genes involved in making keratin, a protein constituent of skin, hair, and nails, contain high levels of introgression.
[30] While interbreeding is the most parsimonious interpretation of these genetic findings, the 2010 research of five present-day humans from different parts of the world does not rule out an alternative scenario, in which the source population of several non-African modern humans was more closely related than other Africans to Neanderthals because of ancient genetic divisions within early Hominoids.
Computer simulations of a broad range of models of selection and demography indicate this hypothesis cannot account for the higher proportion of Neanderthal ancestry in East Asians than in Europeans.
Instead, complex demographic scenarios, likely involving multiple pulses of Neanderthal admixture, are required to explain the data.
Beyond confirming a greater similarity to the Neanderthal genome in several non-Africans than in Africans, the study also found a difference in the distribution of Neanderthal-derived sites between Europeans and East Asians, suggesting recent evolutionary pressures.
[45] Differential activity of HOX cluster genes lie behind many of the anatomical differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, especially in regards to limb morphology.
