Bring Neanderthals back to life?
// February 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Science and Technology
Scientists have unraveled the genetic code for man’s closest cousin using fragments of bone found across Europe. The blueprint could provide the information on the Neanderthal’s looks, intelligence, health, and habits and what makes us human.
It is also possible to bring our ancient relatives who died out around 30,000 years ago back from the death! Researcher Professor Jean Jacques Hublin said “Studying the Neanderthals and the Neanderthal gnome will tell us what makes modern humans really human, why we are alone, why we have these amazing capabilities that allowed our ancestors to draw paintings, to create complex symbols.”
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Germany and US colleagues sequenced more than 1 billion fragments of DNA extracted from bones of Neanderthal men, women, and children that lay undiscovered in caves in Croatia, Spain, Germany, and Russia for up to 70,000 years.
They have decoded 63 percent of the Neanderthal’s DNA and have started comparing it with the man’s genetic code to work out what makes us human.
The research so far shown that the Neanderthals don’t have the gene that allows most Europeans to digest milk as adults.
However, lead researcher Prof. Svante Paabo said “To clone a Neanderthal with the DNA we extracted from fossils is and will remain impossible. You could add Neanderthal genes into an animal model and look at the effects but that is as far as I would go to making a Neanderthal”.
