Homo neanderthalis is a species of hominid that is now known to have lived with early Homo sapiens for as long as 35,000 years. As the Neanderthals were specialized to a geographic area, they were not readily adaptable, and ultimately went the way of extinction. However, it is also now known that early Humans lived peacefully with Neanderthals and even interbred with them – so many, if not all modern humans of western European descent have Neanderthal DNA contained within their own genetic structure — and we can even test for the presence and percentage of this DNA.
Your assignment is to research the current information on this Human/Neanderthal relationship, and describe the testing used to assess the amount of Neanderthal DNA that we may have mixed with our own (minimum 500 words.)
