Scientists bid to take Neanderthal DNA sample

From The Scotsman – Scotland on Sunday: 

Scientists are attempting to extract DNA for the first time from the fossilised bones thought to be of a Neanderthal man who roamed Britain 35,000 years ago.

Experts plan to use a tooth from an upper jaw to establish whether the closest relative of modern humans lived on the British Isles later than it was once thought.

The fragment of an upper jaw, which was found in 1926 at Kent’s Cavern in Devon (Torquay), was originally thought to be human, but experts now think it could date back even further.

Chris Stringer, research leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said it was a critical test that could have historic results.

Continued at “Scientists bid to take Neanderthal DNA sample”

Chris Stringer is author of “Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain” (Amazon UK) and his homepage contains downloadable pdf files of some of his earlier publications including:

“Human Evolution: Out of Ethiopia“

and

“On the reliability of recent tests of the Out of Africa hypothesis for modern human origins.“

Also see “Neanderthals and humans lived side by side: Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar” for links to a New Scientist report, Nature technical papers, and other press reports regarding the Gibraltar discoveries. [Neandertal, Evolution, Anthropology, Science, Neandertals, UK, Fossilized]

Today’s Sunday Times also has an article on this topic.

UPDATE: BBC News (UK) has now uploaded “DNA plan for ‘Neanderthal’ tooth” containing an image of the jawbone.

John Latter / Jorolat
Evolution Research
http://evomech3.blogspot.com/