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Neanderthals: Our Kissing Cousins?

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Neanderthals mated with humans? We talk with the international team that says “yes!” and ask how Neanderthals got in the family.

University of California Santa Cruz’s Ed Green holds replicas of the bones, and a skull, from which Neanderthal DNA was extracted. (Science/AP)
University of California Santa Cruz’s Ed Green holds replicas of the bones, and a skull, from which Neanderthal DNA was extracted. (Science/AP)

We tend to think of pre-historic Neanderthals as distant, done and gone.

A big new scientific report says "Not so." They live in us.

When modern humans first came out of Africa as homo sapiens, they found neighbors. Neanderthals. And apparently, they interbred.

One to four percent of the genetic code of most Europeans and Asians is Neanderthal, says the new report.

The bestselling "Clan of the Cave Bear" novels dreamed it years ago. Now science says it’s true.

This Hour, On Point: Neanderthals R Us. We talk with the team that made the discovery.

Guests:

Richard Edward Green, professor of biomolecular engineering at the Baskin School of Engineering, at the University of California Santa Cruz. He worked with Drs. Paabo and Reich on the Neanderthal genome. Green was the primary author of the May 7 Science Magazine article that describes the team's findings.

David Reich, professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School. He was the third chief researcher on the genome sequencing project.

Alison Brooks, professor of anthroplogy and international affairs at George Washington Unversity. She is also a member of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution.

More:

Check out the Smithsonian's new Hall of Human Origins and give yourself a Neanderthal "makeover" with the Institution's MEanderthal app.

This program aired on May 13, 2010.

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