Excerpt from The Atlanta Journal Constitution. 5 Dec. 2010
2010's Most Amazing Discoveries. #8
Someone tell the Geico cavemen. Next time you're tempted to call that blockhead driver that cuts you off a Neanderthal, know that you might be partly right.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, decoded fragments of 40,000 year old DNA taken from Neanderthal skeltons in Crotia and discovered that some of their genetic material exists in people alive today.
Anthropolgists previously believed that the early human relatives, who dwelled in prehistoruc Europe and the Middle East until 30,000 years ago, simply died out, but the latest findings show that interbreeding must have taken place.
Among those already confirmed to have Neanderthal genes: Ozzy Osbourne. Yes, that's actually true.
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