Tooth gives up oldest human DNA (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Helen Briggs
BBC News science reporter

Scientists have recovered DNA from a Neanderthal that lived 100,000 years ago - the oldest human-type DNA so far.

It was extracted from the tooth of a Neanderthal child found in the Scladina cave in the Meuse Basin, Belgium.

The study, reported in Current Biology, suggests our distant cousins were more genetically diverse than once thought.

Their diversity had declined, perhaps because of climate change or disease, by the time early humans arrived in Europe about 35,000 years ago.

Past diversity

French and Belgian researchers isolated the genetic material from mitochondria. These are "power pack" structures in cells which contain their own DNA.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5052414.stm

I was thinking this might be a dupe, but evidently the earlier report was of a fossil "only" 45ky old: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=20391&mesg_id=20391 In this new study, they compared the DNA against several other samples of more recent Neanderthal DNA.

I know this is only mitochondrial DNA, but it does raise the question ... can we do the "Neolithic Park" experiment? And would it be ethical to do so? Could we possibly recreate Neanderthals? (Would *you* want to grow up 100,000 years in the future knowing you belonged to a species which had already died out?)

[xchrom]

1. this is soooo cool.