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Neanderthal mtDNA genome sequenced
By Crobar in Neurognosis
August 15, 2008

In the August 8th edition of the journal Cell, a team of researchers published a landmark paper - the first complete Neanderthal mtDNA genome sequencing.  As other previous research into this area found, the Neanderthals were not within the range of what could be classified as Homo sapiens - at one time Neanderthals were thought to be an extinct sub-species, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.  Now there is unequivocal evidence to support the separate but closely related classification of Neanderthals as Homo neanderthalensis.

A paragraph from the paper sums this up nicely, stating:

"The complete Neandertal mtDNA genome confirms and extends previous insights into the genetic history of Neandertals. First, it confirms that the Neandertal mtDNA falls outside the variation of extant human mtDNA variation. Second, it shows that the Neandertal mtDNA diverged from the extant human mtDNA lineage on the order of 660,000 years ago. Thus, the most recent common ancestor of human and Neandertal mtDNA lived more than two or three times as long ago as the most recent common ancestor of extant human mtDNAs" (Green et al., 2008).

So much for the Neanderthals were humans with rickets argument that so many palaeoanthropology opponents like to utilize.

Green, R., Malaspinas, A., Krause, J., Briggs, A., Johnson, P., Uhler, C. et al. (2008). A complete Neanderthal mitochondrial genome sequence determined by high-throughput sequencing.  Cell, 134, 416-426.