Modern human evolution has changed dramatically over thousands even millions of years. Recently, researchers have identified a newly proven ancestor to modern humans whom are Neanderthals. Looking at archaic DNA and comparing it with non-African modern human DNA, it is clear to see that we share a great deal of common genetic information with Neanderthals than researchers first thought. With extensive research, researchers and scientists have been able to pinpoint genetic differences and similarities between these two species.
History
About 155,000 years ago, the Homo sapien has arisen from previous ancestors such as the archaic H. sapien and H. erectus (Rodrigues, 2012). Most of our ancestors were discovered and identified in …show more content…
Lukily enough, Neanderthals lived in colder climates where their DNA could be preserved throughout all of these years to be studies (Lewis, 2012, p. 206). This allows researchers to uncover new findings of genetics and receive genetic information to compare species. For a long time, researchers believed the gene FOXP2, a gene that dealt with speech, was one of the genetic differences amongst H. sapiens and Neanderthals (Schwartz, 2012). According to Schwartz (2012), FOXP2 has been identified in ancient Neanderthal DNA, which had researchers concluding that our ancestors were likely compelled towards language and speech. Until recently, researchers were not aware of the related connection amongst modern humans and Neanderthals. Because of the newly related specie, scientific researchers found out that modern humans whom live outside African regions have about 5% of their DNA from Neanderthals (Callaway, 2011). Interestingly enough, according to Schwartz (2012), modern African humans do not contain any Neanderthal DNA. This concludes that about 65,000-90,000 years ago, interbreeding has taken place between Neanderthals and non-African H. sapien and carried on Neanderthal genes across Asian and European countries (Callaway, 2011). Because non-African modern humans carry Neanderthal DNA we can thank our ancestors for vital disease fighting genes. Some …show more content…
According to Callaway (2011), as stated earlier, there were not many Neanderthals during their era which is why there was not certain genes for certain diseases because of the smaller population.
Modern humans and Neanderthals were also short of a stretch of DNA, which indicates the growth of the spine on the penises that were present on other related species (Callaway, 2011).
Interestingly enough, according to Rodrigues (2012), H. sapien were once thought of as being the only specie to carry the KLK8 protein, which is responsible and uses memory and learning. KLK8 is alternatively spliced and is present in the CNS (Rodrigues, 2012). With more intense research, researchers were able to conclude that modern humans are not the only species with this protein present. In fact, KLK8 was shown in Neanderthal DNA which comes to show that these intelligent factors we once thought were only in modern humans could also be present in our ancestors as well (Rodrigues,