Corrupt research of modern man and neanderthal

2007/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika
• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

It was one of the most prestigious news of the end of last year: the team of researcher Svante Päabo published that modern man crossed with the Neanderthal. The research was based on a DNA analysis. As the analysis of these samples has been performed again in another laboratory and they have realized that the samples were contaminated with human DNA.

In its day, much was discussed about the conclusions of this research, since other groups obtained results against it. Well, in view of the new analyses, the conclusions that were obtained in the previous analysis cannot be given for good. According to the new analyses, 706,000 years ago the branches of modern man and neanderthal were separated. And there is no indication of having crossed both species.

The new results have been accepted by researcher Päabo and many researchers have highlighted the high risk of contamination of this type of samples.