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Human relative could be rebuilt
31jul06
LONDON: He is 38,000 years old and nothing but a pile of bones, but
one day we may be able to rebuild him.
Scientists are planning to reconstruct the genetic code of
Neanderthal man.
Anthropologists aim to apply the forensic techniques used to map the
human genome to chart all three billion chemical base-pairs in the DNA
of man's close but long-dead relative.
The researchers believe the DNA of the two species are 99.96 per cent
the same, but will not attempt to recreate a living Neanderthal in the
laboratory.
Once all the genes and their correct order are known, cloning would
theoretically be possible in the future, just as scientists have
talked of resurrecting the mammoth from extinction using DNA samples.
Scientists in Germany and the US have already decoded one million DNA
base-pairs from the leg-bone of a fossilised Neanderthal man found in
a cave in Croatia.
They believe that if they can crack his entire code, it will help
explain the differences between Neanderthals and humans and give clues
on how to prevent disease and illness.
The two-year project has been launched at the Max Planck Institute in
Leipzig, Germany. Researchers led by Svante Paabo, a Swedish
anthropologist who was the first to extract DNA from a Neanderthal
fossil, will chip away the top layer of bone and use a dentist's drill
to collect samples.
Most Neanderthal remains are so old the DNA has been contaminated by
bacteria or the touch of archeologists.
In some cases, only 3 per cent of the DNA in the remains is
Neanderthal, but the fossil found in Croatia is largely
uncontaminated.
Professor Paabo is resisting any temptation to imitate Dr
Frankenstein.
"We will not do an assembly," he said.
"We will not use the sequence to put together the entire
Neanderthal."
However, the project has found a resonance in Germany. Professor
Paabo
has announced the project just days ahead of the 150th anniversary of
the discovery of the first Neanderthal remains by quarry workers in
the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf, in August 1856.
Ever since, paleontologists and anthropologists have tried to uncover
the role these stockily built individuals played in human evolution.
Like man, the Neanderthals were descended from apes. They colonised
mainland Europe and western Asia from 500,000 years ago until 30,000
BC.
Scientists are divided on the creatures' level of intelligence. Some
believe their small brain told them never to cross water unless it was
possible to see land on the other side.
But Steve Mithen, professor of archeology at Reading University, has
credited them with inventing music by singing and using dance-like
movements to communicate with children.
The ancestors of modern humans originated in Africa but moved into
Europe to displace the Neanderthals. For several thousand years the
two co-existed before the Neanderthals died out, often under the blade
of a human axe. Scientists believe they lost out because, although
strong, they lacked the nimble fingers to make sophisticated tools and
weapons.
The prototype of modern humans and Neanderthals broke away from the
great apes about five million years ago, but the division between our
ancestors and Neanderthals is no more than 500,000 years.
Scientists will use a new sequencing machine, described as a cross
between an iPod and a washing machine, to read up to 250,000 DNA
strands at a time.
The Sunday Times
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