Neandertal DNA & human evolution

Update:Hawks responds. John Hawks has not commented on this feature in Wired titled Code of the Caveman. But I'm sure he will, and when he does, I will point you to it because what he says on this topic is worth listening to. But, until then, here are a few points. 1) This extraction of ancient autosomal DNA, not just the copious mtDNA, from Neandertals by the Paabo group and its associates has been talked about for a year or so now. So within the scientific community this isn't a big surprise. 2) The new bioinformatically flavored techniques offer up the possibility to "learn more about their skin and hair color [Neanderatls], as well as what they ate and even their language," according to the research profiled. What does he mean by this? Well, in modern humans we know some of the genes which are involved in these traits. For ...