The Neanderthal Legacy.

So, lately I have been thinking a lot about the way one can leave a legacy on the world. Through reading various biological texts and articles, I am well familiar that we may in fact trace our mutual ancestry with any other organism on earth back to a single common relative, obviously many, many years back depending upon the amount of variation between you and the organism of choice. Meaning, there are a whole host of organisms from around that time whose genes completely died out.

More to the point, I read an article today where some scientists in my current home country of Germany have sequenced 60% of the Neanderthal genome from a piece of usable tissue found recently (on a slight tangent someone has also sequenced the Woolly Mammoth genome and hopes to one day clone one by modifying current elephant embryos and using a female elephant as a host womb, so...dibs on the first pet mammoth). The Neanderthals split off genetically from the ancestors of modern man about 300,000 years ago and thrived in Europe alongside our relatives up until about 30,000 years ago before dying out genetically.

While I cannot say whether or not Neanderthals and our ancestors could interbreed, I do know that they had sophisticated societies and certainly competed with our ancestors for resources, which must have left a lasting legacy on those of us who have survived. Plus, the scientists have already tagged certain genes linked to advanced language capabilities and adult lactose intolerance today. Hence, I imagine a Neanderthal society full of both eloquence and flatulence, much like ours today, though of course a bit dirtier and more dangerous.

The long story short is that even though the Neanderthal lineage died out 30,000 years ago, it is certain through competition and interaction, our civilizations and successful ancestors must have been directly shaped over the course of time by their existence. Likely Neanderthals even figured a few things out they shared with our ancestors. Perhaps they even shaped the way we communicate, the tools we use, the things we find funny, the food we eat, etc. So, a legacy seems a difficult thing to quantify, and maybe any little thing you teach someone or do for someone will alter the course of human history.