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U.S. and German scientists on Thursday launched a two-year project to decipher the genetic code of the Neanderthal, a feat they hope will help deepen understanding of how modern humans’ brains evolved.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia from more than 200,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago. Scientists from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences Corp. of Branford, Conn., will map the genome, or DNA code.
“The Neanderthal is the closest relative to the modern human, and we believe that by sequencing the Neanderthal we can learn a lot,” said Michael Egholm, a 454 Life Sciences vice president.
