Oldest Neanderthal DNA Confirmed

In the March 2015 issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, a group of researchers based in Italy confirmed that the Altamura Man, a hominin skeleton found in a limestone cave in Altamura Italy, belonged to Homo Neanderthalensis. Species confirmation was previously complicated by the limestone encasing the skeleton, which made extraction without damage to the specimen impossible, and by it's unusual morphology. Specifically, it's brow ridges were much thicker than the typical Neanderthal, though it's other features seemed to fit within the normal variation found in Neanderthals. Using the articular portion of the scapula, researchers were able to extract and sequence the whole HVR-1 of the specimen's mtDNA using PCR. After comparing to known Neanderthal and Denisovian genomes, they were able to conclude that the Altamura man was a Neanderthal. Given that dating has placed the Altamura man to be around 130k to 172k years old, this is the oldest Neanderthal DNA confirmed to date. This find will be able to provide some insight into the early Neanderthal evolution, given the DNA and morhpological data the Altamura man is able to provide.

- Justine Tamesis