- Title: GERMANY: SCIENTISTS REVEAL THAT MODERN MAN IS NOT DESCENDED FROM NEANDERTHALS
- Date: 11th July 1997
- Summary: BONN, GERMANY (JULY 11, 1997) 1. SV EXTERIOR SHOT OF MUSEUM WHERE NEWS CONFERENCE TOOK PLACE 0.06 2. SV BIOLOGIST MATTHIAS KRINGS AND OTHER SCIENTISTS SHOWING BONES TO REPORTERS (3 SHOTS) 0.28 3. CU OF BONES OF NEANDERTHAL MAN 0.30 4. SLV NEANDERTHAL FIGURE ON DISPLAY 0.34 5. SV BONES IN DISPLAY CASE 0.37 6. CU OF NEANDERTHAL MAN/PAN EVOLUTIONARY CHART (2 SHOTS) 0.48 7. SV BIOLOGIST KRINGS AND OTHER SCIENTISTS SHOWING BONES /PRESS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 0.57 8. SV KRINGS SAYING "THE RESULT WE GOT IS THAT WE WERE ABLE TO RECOVER DNA (DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID OR GENETIC MATERIAL) FROM THE NEANDERTHAL SPECIMEN AND THIS ENABLED US TO FIND OUT THAT THE NEANDERTHAL WAS NOT OUR ANCESTOR. (REPORTER ASKS IF THEY COULD USE THE DNA TO CREATE A "JURASSIC PARK" TYPE SPECIMEN OF A NEANDERTHAL MAN). KRINGS SAYING "I'M AFRAID NOT. I DON'T THINK WE CAN RECONSTRUCT THE NEANDERTHAL'S DNA IN SUCH A WAY TO RECONSTRUCT AN ENTIRE LIVING ORGANISM." (ENGLISH) 1.27 9. CU BONES 1.31 10.SV KRINGS SAYING "THERE ARE TWO THEORIES EXPLAINING THE HISTORY OF HUMANKIND. THE NEANDERTHAL IS THE BRANCH THAT DIED OUT" (GERMAN) 1.50 11.SV WOMAN LOOKING AT DISPLAY CASES 1.56 Initials P3 S3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 26th July 1997 13:00
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- Location: BONN, GERMANY
- City:
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA2YPJTE6AGSOCSDBW7SAX92TG
- Story Text: Scientists have revealed that modern man is not descended from Neanderthals.
They looked a lot like us and acted a lot like us but Neanderthals were not our ancestors, an international team of scientists said in Bonn on Friday (July 11).
At a press conference, they revealed they had, for the first time, extracted DNA from the bones of a Neanderthal and proved he was too distant genetically to have been an ancestor of modern humans.
The finding will help tip the balance in the bitter dispute about how humans evolved.
Matthias Krings of the University of Munich and a team of experts from Germany and from Pennsylvania State University managed to extract and analyse the genetic material -- or DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) -- from the bones of a Neanderthal more than 30,000 years old.
Using techniques that help scientists determine how closely living beings are related genetically, they determined that the ancestors of Neanderthals branched off the human family tree 600,000 years ago.
By analysing DNA from the bones of the Neanderthal we managed to prove that he was not an ancestor of modern man Krings told reporters.
Comparisons with the DNA of modern humans and of apes showed the Neanderthal was about halfway between a modern human and a chimpanzee.
The findings are published in the journal Cell.
The evidence supports the so-called "Out of Africa" theory of human origins according to which modern humans evolved in Africa and spread across the world about 100,000 years ago.
The other, competing theory is that Homo Erectus -- an early ancestor of humans -- moved out of Africa and across the world and that modern humans evolved separately but in parallel in several different regions.
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