What Neanderthal DNA Is Doing To Your Genome
Scientists estimate that about 2% of our DNA is from Neanderthals. In this week, the journal Cell showed what those Neanderthal DNA do to our genome. Hosted by: Hank Green ---------- Support...
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Neanderthals and modern humans, Homo sapiens, have shared a long and intertwined history. We split from a common ancestor around 700,000 years ago, spent some time apart, but then hooked back up again before the Neanderthals died out 40,000 years ago. Even though they’re gone, a part of them lives on – their DNA. That’s because for some of our history together, early humans had occasional… dalliances with Neanderthals. Our species were similar enough that the resulting offspring were still fertile. And so that history is still within us today. Scientists estimate that for many of us, about 2% of our DNA is from Neanderthals. And it’s not just sitting there, doing nothing. A paper out this week in the journal Cell shows that those bits of Neandert...
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Neanderthals and modern humans, Homo sapiens, have shared a long and intertwined history. We split from a common ancestor around 700,000 years ago, spent some time apart, but then hooked back up again before the Neanderthals died out 40,000 years ago. Even though they’re gone, a part of them lives on – their DNA. That’s because for some of our history together, early humans had occasional… dalliances with Neanderthals. Our species were similar enough that the resulting offspring were still fertile. And so that history is still within us today. Scientists estimate that for many of us, about 2% of our DNA is from Neanderthals. And it’s not just sitting there, doing nothing. A paper out this week in the journal Cell shows that those bits of Neandert...
