A new genetic study bolsters theories of an early human-Neandertal split and is helping scientists pinpoint what makes humans unique. Controversy has long swirled in the scientific community over how closely the hairy Eurasian hunters resembled modern humans, with some researchers even claiming Neandertals (often spelled Neanderthals) were actually members of our own species, Homo sapiens. A new study by geneticist James Noonan at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, however, reveals that modern humans and Neandertals' most recent common ancestor probably perished about 400,000 years ago. The research was presented earlier this month at the American Society of Human Genetics conference in New Orleans, Louisiana .Richard Potts, director of the human origins program at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., called Noonan's work "highly significant."

"Each part of the Neandertal genome is an archive of the similarity and distinction [between Neandertals and] all people living today," he said. "Comparison to a lineage in our own family tree helps us understand which elements of the genetic code make us human."

View: Full Article | Source: National Geographic

One more piece of the puzzle......one day we will have the whole picture

There isn't anything new in this story but it's still interesting.

I object to the author's assertion that Neanderthals were "hairy". How does he know that? We've never had anything to study we're fairly sure came from Neanderthals other than their bones and lots of tools. We don't even know of any art made by Neanderthals. We can suspect they were hairy because they were adapted to cold, but come to think of it, human body hair is so thin it does little more than hold sweat. It probably does nothing to keep one warm unless it's very thick.

We have no evidence whatsoever indicating their hairiness, their skin/hair/eye colors or even how the flesh on their faces was arranged. The nose hole is huge so they probably had big noses, and they had huge eye ridges, sloping foreheads, etc. That's all we can tell from the evidence we have.