Sequencing Data and Gene Flow on Early Hominids

Neanderthals and modern humans became one species, through thousands of years of interbreeding. Supporters of this theory state that some modern day Europeans have facial features similar to Neanderthal man. Neanderthal genes may have been inserted into the human gene pool, and Human genes may have been added to the Neanderthals. At this point, Neanderthals and humans may have evolved together at an incredible rate, becoming one race in a relatively short period of time. On the other hand, a disease, a war, or an increase in population causing the natural resources to be inadequate for keeping so many hominids alive might have cut off Neanderthals suddenly from contact with the humans,

Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted for well over 100,000 years.  Then suddenly Homo neandertalensis began to die out and surrender the earth to Homo sapiens.  Paleontologists and anthropologists have entertained several possibilities to the causes of this event: interbreeding among Neanderthals and humans, competition for natural resources, and Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest.”  What the real cause has been has plagued scientists for years. Now, due to an international research team from Germany, those possibilities have been even further deduced, making it easier to pinpoint the exact reason Homo neandertalensis became extinct.

“All four Neanderthals yielded the mtDNA sequences similar to those previously determined from Neanderthal individuals, whereas none of the five early modern humans contained such mtDNA sequences. In combination with current mtDNA data, this excludes any large genetic contribution by Neanderthals to early modern humans, but does not rule out the possibility of a smaller contribution” (Serre, 16 March 2004).

Neanderthals lived from 130,000-30,000 years ago and were part of the Archaic Homo sapiens; meaning the Homo neaderthalensis were an earlier member of the modern humans. The living range for the Neanderthals located from Europe to the Middle East. About 50,000 years ago modern humans started to migrate from Africa to Europe and the Middle East, thus causing Neanderthals and modern humans to interbreed. In the two articles “Researchers shed light on Neanderthals’ legacy in humans” and “Surprise! 20 Percent of Neanderthal Genome Lives On in Modern Humans, Scientists Find” they discuss how some genes and phenotypes found in Neanderthals were also expressed in non-African descent modern humans and reason behind it. The study between the Neanderthals

The DNA is composed of four nucleotides, which are abbreviated A, C, G and T. it’s in alphabetical order, too. These four letters encode all of life. Humans do have DNA that match up with Neanderthals and that expected, but it’s proven that a Neanderthal and a human had sex and they had descendants. It’s found in our genome today and is possible for most humans to have Neanderthal genes, but not for Africans because their ancestors never met up with

In the film Journey of Men: Genetic Odyssey anthropologist Spencer Wells proved that early humans migrated out of Africa. In order to prove that all humans share the same family history, this essay will first talk about where humans evolved from, the first humans in Africa, their DNA and chromosomes, and the migration itself.

Although modern humans are of the only surviving ancestors in today's society other groups of early humans did used to walk where we walk. Which is why the greatest mystery and biggest question of human evolution is what happened to the Neanderthals. Neanderthals were the early group of humans who used to live in Europe and Asia thousands of years before Homo-Sapiens took over the world population. Many believe Neanderthals died off leaving nothing behind but scientist have provided that most humans have neanderthal DNA within them. Leading people to believe that our ancestors had interbred with Neanderthals. As Neanderthal DNA is 99.7 percent identical to modern human DNA providing that Neanderthal genes continue to lurk on within modern

Learning from early Modern Humans or Neanderthals can help shed light on our ancestors that walked the earth thousands of years ago offering a unique perspective or window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the unprecedented obscurity surrounding why humans survived while the Neanderthals went extinct.

Neanderthals, also known as Homo neanderthalensis, existed mainly in the time period known as the Middle Paleolithic in the regions of Europe and southwestern to central Asia. The Middle Paleolithic took place from about 200,000 years ago until around 45,000 years ago. However, the Neanderthals still existed for about 15,000 years after that. After the Middle Paleolithic, the Neanderthals existed alongside anatomically modern humans and most likely interbred with them. Although the species of Homo neanderthalensis became extinct around 25,000 years ago, their DNA is still present in humans today. Neanderthals are without a doubt the closest extinct human relatives to modern humans. The first Neanderthal fossil was not found until the year 1829. This discovery in Belgium would prove to be one of the most important archaeological findings in history. After several more of these findings occurred, we have been able to learn countless facts about Neanderthals. Scientists believe they had very short, stocky, and powerful bodies, along with very strong teeth and jaw bones and a surprisingly large brain. Neanderthals had the ability to walk bipedally as we do today, and it is believed that they matured much faster than modern humans. Dental fossil evidence shows that an eight year old Neanderthal possessed the same dental structure as that of a ten to twelve year old

We often have misconceptions whether we share some DNA with common ancestors and we now have the ability to fully understand that we do. When people first meet, they often ask where we are from and respond with an ethnic background, but do not take the time to realize how we came to be. Not many think back to the time where modern humans truly became modern humans and see if we even shared DNA with them. Not many like to admit that they share DNA with those who were “clueless and lived in caves”. One of our common ancestor, Homo neanderthalensis, were found around 400,000 to 40,000 years ago in most of Europe and Southwest Asia (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 2016). Upon discovery, scientists were able to use the combination

However, the ME for the mitochondrial 16s rRNA shows that gorilla is more closely related to the chimpanzee and the bonobo, when compared to the other primates (Figure 11.3A). Furthermore, all of the four trees produced show that modern humans and Neanderthals appear as a monophyletic clade 100% of bootstrap replication times which supports the first hypothesis stating that Neanderthals would be the closest relatives to modern humans, when compared to the other primates (Figure 11.3A, 11.3B).

In the past few years, advancements in biotechnology and a growing collection of hominid bone remnants have allowed paleoanthropologists to gain insight into how populations of different archaic hominid species interacted. In particular, sequencing of the Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) genome has provided evidence that the evolution of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) was influenced by interbreeding and gene flow between the two species of Homo. By comparing Neanderthal and modern human DNA, researchers have been able to produce evidence that would support the notion that not only was interbreeding possible, but also that it likely happened and produced a selective advantage.

During the 1980s, three specialists, Allan Wilson, Rebecca Cann and Mark Stoneking, worked together on another theory that supports Charles Darwin's speculation, the “Mitochondrial Eve” hypothesis. In these tests, the scientists solemnly focused on mitochondrial DNA, human genes that lay within the cell and are passed from mother to child. These genes allow mutation, as they mutate quickly for adaptation, thus allowing those studying to find and track changes during short time periods. By focusing on these genes and comparing their differences, the three scientists were able to create a hypothesis about the time and place when modern humans began to evolve. According to their findings, they believe that modern humans are decentants from a single population, while earlier humans e.g. Neandertals and Homo erectus, had become extinct. Furthermore, the team compared the DNA of numerous people of differerent ethnic backgrounds and concluded that all humans did indeed evolve from 'one mother' in Africa about 150,000 years ago.

The first Neanderthal fossils found in Europe, a fragmented child’s cranium in Belgium in 1830, and an adult cranium in Gibraltar, were not immediately recognized as a divergent kind of human. Only in 1856 after a partial skeleton was found in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany it became clear that these fossils belonged to an extinct human and our closest evolutionary relative (Hublin and Pääbo, 2006). Since then, questions about their relationship with modern humans have been fiercely debated between anthropologists. But what attracts most interest from scientists and popular media is the possibility of hybridization between Neanderthals and modern humans if, in other words, they were a genetically different specie or a

During this migration, at about 45,000 years ago, another mutation SNP M89 occurred. This mutation exists in 90-95% of non-Africans.