Neanderthal

99.5% Human

A new study, conducted by two different teams of scientists on supposedly 38,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA, suggests that our “evolutionary relatives” were about 99.5 percent human, yet another finding that confirms what creationists have been saying all along—that the Biblical record of one created human race is indeed accurate and reliable.

In the study, each team used a different technique to separately sequence “large chunks of DNA” that were taken from a Neanderthal femur found twenty-six years ago in a Croatian cave. While the genome has only partially been studied, an article by Ker Than from LiveScience tells us that “One team sequenced more than one million base pairs and the other 65,000 pairs of the genome.” Based on comparisons of the sequenced DNA and our own human genome, “The results from the new studies confirm the Neanderthal's humanity, and show that their genomes and ours are more than 99.5 percent identical, differing by only about 3 million bases,” a difference that Edward Rubin, leader of one of the research teams, called “a drop in the bucket”.¹ We also know that we are comparing DNA from very, very many humans (for upon so many diverse samples is our average human genome based) with only one Neanderthal—meaning that, while the human DNA is a good average, the Neanderthal genes could be quite abnormal in a population possibly more human than even this 99.5 percent.

The LiveScience article (source one) rules out fears of contamination by explaining that the femur fragment, small and uninteresting, "was thrown in a big box of uninformative bones and not handled very much," according to Svante Paabo (leader of one of the teams), and thus received little exposure to human DNA. In addition, certain chemical damages unique to ancient DNA help to verify that the material is truly Neanderthal. A statement by Edward Rubin, leader of the other team, is quoted as, “One of the crucial things is that we feel confident that the DNA we have, which we're calling Neanderthal, is truly Neanderthal.”¹

One team, whose work was detailed in the Nature article “Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA,” tested over seventy samples in their search for the most retrievable and least damaged DNA, and estimated the contamination at less than about six percent. This group tested mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), found in a cell's mitochondria and only inherited from mothers, as well as some nuclear DNA (found in a cell's nucleus), and was able to confirm certain mtDNA sequences using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).² In the end, the results from the two different teams were combined—the second team's work being published in the journal Science—and the overall figure for human-Neanderthal similarity was said to be about 99.5 percent identical in terms of genetics.¹

While there is definitely room for error, it seems safe to say that these studies can do nothing but support the humanity of Neanderthal, as the LiveScience article suggests. Neanderthal humanity is also supported by the fact that “studies have shown Neanderthals used tools, wore jewelery, buried their dead, cared for their sick, and possibly sang or even spoke in much the same way that we do.”¹ In addition, many fossils have been found showing men that appear to be half human and half Neanderthal (not possible if the two did not come from the same “human kind”), as well as instances of the two being found buried side-by-side.

As for genetics, it is quite possible that, as the human genetic variation has slowly dwindled and breakdown has occurred (results of micro-evolution and the death Curse of sin), the genes for typical Neanderthal characteristics such as the heavy and protruding brow, thick bones, and others have simply disappeared or become far less prominent. This is no more troublesome than finding that breeding a small group of red-haired humans (red hair being recessive) with a large group of brown-haired people will result in a primarily brown-haired population. And as for the typical, prominent Neanderthal brow ridge, I must note that the brow ridge is one of the bones that continue to grow throughout a person's lifetime. Assuming that ancient people lived longer than modern ones (as the Biblical record teaches), we could very well expect them to have larger brow ridges than our own.³ †

References

1. Ker Than. “Neanderthal: 99.5 Percent Human”. LiveScience. http://www.livescience.com/health/061115_neanderthal_dna.html.

2. Green, Krause, Ptak, and others. "Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA". Nature. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/nature05336.html.

3. Brian Thomas. “Neanderthal Babies Were Human Babies”. The Institute for Creation Research. http://www.icr.org/article/neanderthal-were-human-babies/.

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