Andrew... Neanderthal is not mergent with Humans but a divergent dead-end
hominid line.  Les

"Latest Genetic Evidence Indicates No Interbreeding between Neanderthals &
Humans" (Science, 18 May 2007, p 967)
        At the Biology of Genomes meeting held recently at New York's Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory, scientific teams from the Max Plank Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and the Joint Genome Institute
in Walnut Creek, California reported on the first-ever Neanderthal nuclear
DNA sequences. ... In a sharp contrast to the evolutionary scenario proposed
by University of Chicago researchers.  Through a direct analysis of the
nuclear DNA sequences of the Neanderthal genome, researchers from Harvard
University and the National Human Genome Research Institute conclusively
discovered no indication whatsoever that humans and Neanderthals interbred.
Analysis of human and Neanderthal Y-chromosome sequences by researchers from
the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany,
produced no evidence for gene flow between humans and Neanderthals.  Earlier
studies of Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA yielded a similar conclusion as
well.  Direct comparisons between Neanderthal DNA indicate that these two
species did not interbreed.

OTHER REFs:
Matthias Krings et al., "Neanderthal DNA Sequences and the Origin of Modern
Humans," Cell 90 (1997): 19-30;
Matthias Krings et al., "DNA Sequence of the Mitochondrial Hypervariable
Region II from the Neanderthal Type Specimen," Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, USA 96 (1999): 5581-85;
Igor V. Ovchinnikov et al., "Molecular Analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the
Northern Caucasus," Nature 404 (2000): 490-93;
Matthias Krings et al., "A View of Neanderthal Genetic Diversity," Nature
Genetics 26 (2000): 144-46.
Ralf W. Schmitz et al., "The Neanderthal Type Site Revisited:
Interdisciplinary Investigations of Skeletal Remains from the Neander
Valley, Germany," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 99
(2002): 13342-47.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------