Nick Wade on Neandertals

Finally Nick Wade is wading in on the Neandertal genomics story. Wade is a top level reporter, so when he covers a story I am pretty sure he is getting "inside" information that allows him to frame his piece appropriately. So when he says, "Researchers also hope to resolve such questions as whether the Neanderthals spoke, their hair and skin color...." Well, that is definite confirmation of the obvious fact that FOXP2 and MC1R are in the sights. One thing, Wade refers to "founding population." Remember to be careful of terms like this...long term effective population can be tricky, and it often gets confounded by metapopulation dynamics.