Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have been carrying out tests on genetic material taken from fossilized Neanderthal remains. They aim to use genome comparisons to answer some central questions: what's the difference between modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthal - and what makes a human what he or she is?Geneticist Svante Pääbo and his team analysed the 30,000 years old DNA sample and identified about 60 percent of the full Neanderthal genome. The researchers now want to compare the results with human genome data. They are particularly curious about why Neanderthal died out tens of thousands years ago,whereas modern humans continued to evolve.
Svante Pääbo: Neanderthals show us how unique WE are. This project isn't primarily about understanding Neanderthals. It's actually more about understanding ourselves and our history.
