AKA William

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This slipped by last week, but it’s still cool.

On Darwin’s (and Lincoln’s!) 200th birthday last week, Dr. Svante Paabo, the man whose work inspired Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park,” announced that the Neanderthal genome had been decoded as part of The Neanderthal Genome Project.

. . . Dr Paabo and his team extracted DNA from Neanderthal fossils excavated at four sites, including the original specimen discovered in the Neander valley in Germany in 1856.

. . . So far, Dr Paabo has been able to show, from the overall amount of difference between the DNA of the two species, that the Neanderthal line and that of modern humanity parted company only shortly before the oldest known Neanderthal fossils were alive.

. . . The team has also looked at a few genes of particular interest. The most famous of these is FOXP2, damage to which prevents speech in modern humans. Neanderthals turn out to have the same version of FOXP2 as Homo sapiens (and thus a different one from chimpanzees). Researchers are divided about how significant FOXP2 really is, because it is involved in the mechanics of speech production, not the mental abilities that lie at the root of language. But some regard this discovery as evidence that Neanderthals could speak.

Previous genetic discoveries about the Neanderthal included discovering the gene that would have made them redheads.

And all I know is that I think at least one of my sister’s in-laws is at least half-Neanderthal because that re-creation of the Neanderthal in the pic above? Looks exactly like Grandpa Bob.