Humans, Neanderthals not related

2003-05-13 08:40

Washington - Today's humans are not genetic relatives of Neanderthals, an Italian study published here on Monday suggests.

Cro-Magnon man won out over Neanderthal man, but without genetic mixing, Italian researcher Giorgio Bertorelle and his team report in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The report lends evidence to the theory that anatomically modern humans emerged from Africa some 150 000 years ago and eventually displaced earlier humans, such as Neanderthals in Europe, but without mixing.

They extracted DNA from the skeletons of two anatomically modern Cro-Magnon men (Homo sapiens sapiens), who inhabited Europe between 23 000 and 25 000 years ago.

The DNA was compared with extracts from the anatomically archaic Neanderthal who lived approximately 29 000 to 42 000 years ago.

Cro-Magnon humans differ widely in their genetic makeup from Neanderthals studied. That finding, according to the researchers, suggests modern man's ancestors has no links with genes from Neanderthal man.

"This discontinuity is difficult to reconcile with the hypothesis that both Neanderthals and early anatomically modern humans contributed to the current European gene pool," researchers conclude.

Their findings appear to contradict the theory that Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man had mixed gene pools that would form an evolving species that contributed to the genes of modern humans.

The study was carried out at the University of Florence, Italy. -Sapa-AFP

- SAPA