Most humans have a small amount of Neanderthal DNA in them.
About 2.5 percent on average. But some people have rather more -- are you one of them?
Despite the Neanderthals' reputation as primitive, thuggish and a little dim, their physical characteristics don't sound too bad.
They had bigger brains and muscles than humans, as well as thicker bones. They died out around 30,000 years ago after getting along fine in Europe and Asia for hundreds of thousands of years, even crossbreeding with early populations of homo sapiens. Was one of those crossbreeders a distant grandfather of yours?
Now you can find out. Personal genomics startup 23AndMe is offering its subscribers the option to have their DNA analysed for Neanderthal quotient. Eric Durand, one of the company's computational biologists, has put together a test that compares two modern human genomes with the Neanderthal genome, allowing you to work out exactly what percentage of your DNA is Neanderthal.
Those who do have a high number of Neanderthal genes might not be as obvious as you might expect. Hairy, short, angry individuals aren't necessarily the prime candidates -- it isn't yet known. But according to Svante Pääbo, the Swedish geneticist behind the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome, getting some good human data to compare to the sequenced Neanderthal genome could prove useful in tracking human evolutionary changes since the unlucky species died out.
Eventually it's hoped that biologists will be able to work out the purpose of the 80 genetic variants found so far that are unique to modern humans. But in the meantime, if you were more Neanderthal than most, wouldn't you want to know about it?
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
