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ORIGIN OF LIFE

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All of Time Online. Becoming Human. Population Genetics. The Evolution Institute. ThisViewOfLife. Image retrieved from nationalgeographic.com Post: March 20, 2014 11:54 pm Author: Melissa Hamilton Source: Nature If you’ve ever considered a pedicure from a scientist, think again - for one digit may reveal your entire genome. That’s precisely what occurred when paleontologists got hold of a toe bone belonging to a female Neanderthal who left her appendage behind in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. She’d probably be shocked to know that 130,000 years later, we are privy to her family’s social life and now know she was highly inbred.

The study, published online in Nature in December 2013, describes how this new Neanderthal genome contains evidence that points to a greater amount of interbreeding between ancient human populations than previously realized. Perhaps the phrase, ‘kissing kin’ originated early on – this particular Neanderthal’s parents were found to be half-siblings and her two parental gene sets were close to identical for long stretches of generations. Dr. Dr. TED Talks Anthropologists. Human Variation.