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Absence of regional affinities of Neandertal DNA with living humans does not reject multiregional evolution
Author(s) -
Relethford John H.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1060
Subject(s) - ancient dna , affinities , mitochondrial dna , evolutionary biology , dna , biology , geography , gene , genetics , demography , population , sociology , biochemistry
Abstract The recent extraction of mitochondrial DNA sequences from three European Neandertal fossils has led many to the conclusion that ancient DNA analysis supports the African replacement model of modern human origins and rejects models of multiregional evolution that propose some Neandertal ancestry in living humans. This conclusion is based, in part, on the lack of regional affinity of Neandertal DNA to that from living Europeans. Consideration of migration matrix models shows that this conclusion is premature, since under a model of interregional gene flow we expect to see similar levels of Neandertal ancestry in all contemporary regions, and living Europeans should not necessarily show closer affinity. The absence of regional affinity in Neandertal DNA does not distinguish between replacement and multiregional models. Am J Phys Anthropol 115:95–98, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.