Summary

In this article, written by Armando G. M. Neves and Maurizio Serva, they explain the

three models (I am sure there are more, but these seem to be the main ones.)

recognized by the scientific community that could explain our ancestry. The three

theories are as followed; Out of Africa -which was the most widely accepted

hypothesis-, Multiregional, and the third is the hypothesis of interbreeding between

Africans and local hominids, in this case Neanderthals. The authors of this article

refer to a paper written by Richard Green [1] that speaks to the rare occurrences

that could explain Neanderthal DNA in living non-African humans. Neves and Serva

then go in to a series of mathematical problems showing the rate of the

interbreeding between these two species. The problems include subpopulation size,

migrations, sexual reproductions and other variables that would have factored into

the commingling of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. Neves and Serva then explain

why they denounce the Out of Africa model based off the information they gathered.

Citation Discussion

Unfortunately, I am unable to read any articles that cited the one written by Neves

and Serva so instead I will discuss the article written by Richard Green and his

colleagues.

As stated in my summary of Extremely Rare Interbreeding Events Can Explain

Neanderthal DNA in Living Humans Greens article explained how there is now

evidence that supports the theory that our African ancestors did in fact interbreed

with Neanderthals. There is verification that living non-African humans have

similarities to Neanderthal DNA whereas living African humans do not have these
same similarities. Green also suggests that this blending of species most likely

happened in the Middle East and before the migration of Africans into Eurasia.

After reading Greens paper, A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome, I felt less

confused when it came to Neves and Servas mathematical problems. This is

probably due to the fact the Green and his colleagues wrote the paper in a more

palatable way.

Critical Discussion

It was obvious to me that Neves and Serva did in fact follow the scientific method

when writing this article although I was a tad confused at the beginning, but I

digress. I think if you could easily decipher what exactly they were talking about it

was an easy enough process to follow. If not, then a few google searches for

definitions will set you straight. I admit to doing a little googling myself, which I

suppose you could consider research if you wanted to. Besides me googling words I

was unfamiliar with I didnt feel the need to delve deeper into the subject more than

I have in the past. Even though Neves and Serva used somewhat alien terms to

explain their point on the subject I believed that they did a fair enough job

approaching the topic.

This topic, Neanderthal DNA intertwined with Homo Sapien DNA is already

something I feel is truth or almost truth. Although I hadnt thought about the fact

that this commingling of communities happened before an expansion out of Africa

and the Middle East. I had always assumed that it happened afterwards or during

the expansion.

I think as our technology advances so will the research into our ancestry, but as it

stands now the research done by these two men as well as the various other people
cited in Neves and Servas paper is satisfying enough for a student such as myself. I

am always willing to learn new things as they come out but I have no questions I

would like answered as of right now. I do, however, hope not to have read about

that much math again anytime soon.

References:

1. Green RE, Krause J, Briggs AW, Maricic T, Stenzel U, et al. (2010) A draft sequence of the

Neandertal genome. Science 328: 710722.

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