The New York Times has this interesting piece on plans to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome using DNA extracted from bones discovered in Croatia. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany and 454 Life Sciences in the US will collaborate on the work. The study of Neanderthal DNA has been stalled by many difficulties, but better understanding of ancient DNA and enhanced technology in the form of a new DNA sequencing machine developed by 454 Life Sciences seems to be providing the means to a breakthrough.
The author of this article, Nicholas Wade, has recently written a book on DNA research and what it can tell us about human evolution entitled Before the Dawn. I picked up a copy last week and find it fascinating. The pace of research in this area is breathtaking, and anyone interested in the subject should read this book.
As Wade points out in this article, reconstruction of Neanderthal DNA sequences could tell us many things about them and us:
"Recovery of the Neanderthal genome, in whole or in part, would be invaluable for reconstructing many events in human prehistory and evolution. It would help address such questions as whether Neanderthals and humans interbred, whether the archaic humans had an articulate form of language, how the Neanderthal brain was constructed, if they had light or dark skins, and the total size of the Neanderthal population."
RTWT to get the detail on the difficulties of extracting and processing Neanderthal DNA. Wade ends his article with this eye-popper:
"If the Neanderthal genome were fully recovered, it might in principle be possible to bring the species back from extinction by inserting the Neanderthal genome into a human egg and having volunteers bear Neanderthal infants. There would, however, be great technical and ethical barriers to any such venture."
What do you think?
6 comments:
We beat them once, we can do it again.
HAHAHAHA!
Better to not breed them. What drug dealer would want a Rottweiler to scre the competition when he could have a Neanderthal. And then inevitably they would end up neglected and in foster care.
Frankly, they would probably end up as NFL linemen! Or sumo wrestlers.
I vote bullriders (see some of Val Geist's writings) or bouncers.
But Chas's notion scares me! There is some serious dystopian fiction in imagining Neandertals on crank, listening to gangsta rap or death metal... hard to beat THEM, at least one on one...
Neanderthal cowboys... I see an alternate history novel in that for you, Steve!
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