Neanderthal DNA May Still Affect Our Health and Habits

The Gibraltar 1 skull, discovered in 1848 in Forbes' Quarry was the first adult Neanderthal skull ever found (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) If you’re of Eurasian descent, about 3 percent of your DNA probably came from Neanderthals, and new research suggests that it could have a small effect on your health. Roughly 50,000 years ago, when the ancestors of modern Eurasian people migrated north and east out of Africa, they encountered other hominins – members of different, but closely related, species. Researchers believe Neanderthals died out largely thanks to humans, through a combination of violence and competition for resources. It wasn’t all discord and strife, however. The two species managed to interbreed, and today geneticists estimate that between 1 and 4 percent of the DNA of modern Eurasian-descended people originally came from Neanderthals. Researchers believe the tiny percentage of Neanderthal DNA we still carry plays a small, but discernible, role in various aspects of our well being, from depression to nicotine addiction.