Rethinking our place among our ancestors (Image: Javier Trueba/SPL)
Do we have a little Neanderthal in us? That’s not a reference to your behaviour at the end-of-year office party, but to the genes of our extinct cousins. With the imminent publication of the genome sequence of Homo neanderthalis, that question may finally be answered.
So far no one has uncovered evidence of any cross-species romps – at least none that left a trace in our DNA. The 3-billion-nucleotide Neanderthal genome is our best chance yet of finding out.
Whether they did or didn’t will make the headlines next year, but the…
