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posted by martyb on Friday April 28 2017, @10:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the What-a-relief! dept.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/no-bones-no-problem-dna-left-cave-soils-can-reveal-ancient-human-occupants

Fifty thousand years ago, a Neandertal relieved himself in a cave in present-day Belgium, depositing, among other things, a sample of his DNA. The urine clung to minerals in the soil and the faeces eventually decomposed. But traces of the DNA remained, embedded in the cave floor, where earth falling from the cave's ceiling and blowing in from outside eventually entombed it. Now, researchers have shown they can find and identify such genetic traces of both Neandertals and Denisovans, another type of archaic human, enabling them to test for the presence of ancient humans even in sites where no bones have been found.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @12:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @12:58AM (#501366)

    2.3 Competitive replacement
      2.3.1 Species-specific disadvantages

    Neanderthals lived in less numerous and socially more isolated groups than contemporary Homo sapiens

      2.3.2 Division of labor

    Neanderthal's relative lack of labor division resulted in less efficient extraction of resources

    Neanderthals were less social.
    Sharing wasn't their thing.
    There is clearly a genetic line that includes Neanderthals and Right Wingers.
    One hopes that extinction is also part of that modern-day picture.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]