SEED hits the major points, and Paabo confirms:
At last, anthropology and genetics have a point of agreement in terms of the fate of Neanderthals. Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah who edited Lahn's paper, described the analysis supporting its conclusions as "quite bulletproof."Pääbo, made famous for his mtDNA evidence against interbreeding, hailed it as "the most compelling case to date showing a genetic contribution of Neanderthals to modern humans," and said he plans to to seek confirmation of Lahn's findings in his own work on the Neanderthal genome.
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Hey Razib,
Thanks for the linkage. :)
Please pardon a naive question ... but if there is no mitochondrial neandertal dna in modern humans, then any genetic inheritance from the neandertals must have come from neandertal men impregnating modern women. And not ever, or nearly not ever, vice-versa. Is that correct?
BTW, Discover magazine, in its December 2006 issue, lists Paabo as one of two runners-up for Scientist of the year. The winner is Jay Keasling.
Since Discover also features an intro by Kary B. Mullis to its article "The All-Time Essential Reading List", one might ask, who cares what they think?