Neanderthal DNA found in some modern humans, scientists say: Scientists, with the help of a pinch of fossil bone dust, have discovered that modern human beings interbred with Neanderthals tens of thousands of years ago, and that 1 to 4 percent of the genes carried by non-African people are traceable to the much-caricatured, beetle-browed cavemen.
The Neanderthal project, which took four years and involved 57 scientists, is the latest and most astonishing example of the recovery of scientifically useful information from 'ancient DNA.'
The new data answer a few of the many questions about modern human beings' relationship with their last big hominin competitors, who died out about 30,000 years ago. The data also hint at what Homo sapiens had -- but Homo neanderthalensis didn't -- that may have made the difference between survival and extinction.
