Sex between species

There are various DNA testing services on the market but I chose the Geno 2.0 Next Generation test because it forms part of a wider scientific research project in which around 300,000 DNA markers are analysed. It shows the migration paths of one’s ancient maternal and paternal ancestors, and tells you if you have Neanderthal DNA in your genome. It also allows you to engage in the interactive Genographic Project that offers extra information, including about the broader historical context of your DNA map .

There were only a couple of surprises since I knew, anecdotally, that my ancestry was European (I thought more French than British, but it turned out to be the other way around) and African, with indigenous heritage, in that order. Some Asiatic ancestry was unexpected, but I was thoroughly amazed to discover that I also have Neanderthal ancestry .

I started reading about Neanderthals because, like most people, I thought that the ancient sexual encounters of humans and Neanderthals was just that: ancient. But the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome revealed that about two percent of the ancestry of each European and Asian modern human traces to ancient gene flow from Neanderthals .

Therefore, most non-Africans have Neanderthal DNA, while present- day Africans do not .

We know that humans originated in Africa and started on their different migratory routes around 60,000 years ago. At that time Neanderthals, who have been extinct for about 30,000 years were still living in Eurasia, having left Africa 300,000- 400,000 years ago. It is clear that the two species had no problems with each other when they came into contact. The result of their mating has been long lasting, leaving an important trace of Neanderthal DNA in modern humankind .

On the website Cell.com, I read that “Neanderthal-inherited sequences are not silent remnants of ancient interbreeding but have measurable impacts on gene expression that contribute to variation in modern human phenotypes.” It’s to say that your Neanderthal DNA inheritance would predispose you to being able to live at high altitude, for example, but also to certain illnesses, including depression, tobacco addiction, auto-immune diseases and risk of blood clots .

Neanderthals were a small population for hundreds of thousands of years and became inbred, accumulating harmful mutations. The benefit of Neanderthal-human hybridisation is that human natural selection purged those mutations and, although some residual Neanderthal weaknesses endured, made for a human being better equipped for the environmental challenges that lay ahead, having left Mother Africa .

If today’s advocates of racial purity — something that hardly exists — understood the facts it might temper their stupidity. But then, race is a social, economic and political construct and there are always those willing to exploit fear and maintain ignorance to dominate others. Of course, the Atlantic slave trade was the most reprehensible episode of sustained and systematic dehumanisation of any group of people for purely economic gain, using those very methods of control. “Neanderthal” name-calling is insulting, I imagine, partly because white racists are uninformed of their own close relationship with the species. An Internet search reveals some pretty bizarre, racist ideas about ethnic types .

And the poor Neanderthal gets some terrible PR, too, although we now know that they were a lot more human than ape-like .

The time has come to defend our ancient cousins whose DNA has helped make so many of us who we are. It is interesting to note that the biblestudy website has come out supporting Neanderthal man as a legitimate descendant of A d a m and Eve and not a product of e v o l u - tion .