Neanderthal: Kissing
Cousins or Bogeymen?
As the first Homo
sapiens pioneers migrated into
Europe they surely would have encountered Neanderthals and wondered about these
somehow familiar yet strangely different creatures. Were they just peculiar
looking humans or were they something else? This same issue has puzzled anthropologists ever since the
discovery of the first fossil Neanderthal skull in Germany in 1856, leading to
the ultimate question of whether modern humans and Neanderthal ever mated to
produce offspring whose genes continue to circulate in the 21st
century human gene pool.
Neanderthals had
successfully inhabited the European continent for as much as 300,000 years and
were adapted to the intense cold there.
Physically, Neanderthals were shorter, more powerfully built and had
denser bone mass than Homo sapiens. They had large noses, prominent brow
ridges,
a long, low cranial vault containing a brain roughly 10% larger than Homo
sapiens,
and powerful biting musculature that they probably employed both for eating and
as a vice-like tool. Their technology may have seemed crude to the newly
arriving Aurignacian hunters from the south but the NeanderthalsŐ Mousterian
tools had served them well in the harsh European environment and their culture
included many behaviors that Homo sapiens would have recognized as similar to
their own.
In 1997 Dr. Svante Paabo at the University of
Munich successfully extracted mtDNA from a sample of bone taken from the
original Neanderthal skeleton from the Neander Valley. The results showed that Neanderthal
mtDNA is remarkably different from human DNA. You can see below that there are 28 mutational differences
between Neanderthal (blue) and Homo sapiens (red) in a
379-nucleotide section of the mitochondrial control region. This result was later duplicated on two
other Neanderthal
GTTCTTTC ATGGGGGAGC AGATTTGGGT ACCACCCAAG TATTGACTCA CCCATCAGCA ACCGCTATGT ATCTCGTACA
GTTCTTTC ATGGGGAAGC
AGATTTGGGT ACCACCCAAG TATTGACTCA CCCATCAACA ACCGCTATGT ATTTCGTACA
TTACTGTTAG TTACCATGAA TATTGTACGG TACCATAATT ACTTGACTAC CTGCAGTACA TAAAAACCTA ATCCACATCA
TTACTGCCAG CCACCATGAA TATTGTACGG
TACCATAAAT ACTTGACCAC CTGTAGTACA TAAAAACCCA ATCCACATCA
AACCCCCCCC CCCATGCTTA CAAGCAAGCA CAGCAATCAA CCTTCAACTG
TCATACATCA ACTACAACTC CAAAGACGCC
AAACCCCCTC CCCATGCTTA CAAGCAAGTA CAGCAATCAA CCCTCAACTA TCACACATCA ACTGCAACTC CAAAGCCACC
CTTCACCCAC TAGGATATCA ACAAACCTAC CCACCCTTGA CAGTACATAG CACATAAAGT CATTTACCGT ACATAGCACA
CCTCACCCAC TAGGATACCA ACAAACCTAC CCACCCTTAA CAGTACATAG TACATAAAGC CATTTACCGT ACATAGCACA
TTACAGTCAA ATCCCTTCTC GCCCCCATGG ATGACCCCCC TCAGATAGGG GTCCCTTGAT
TTACAGTCAA ATCCCTTCTC GTCCCCATGG ATGACCCCCC
TCAGATAGGG GTCCCTTGAC