I don't know if we should believe Svante Pääbo anymore, but his lab has some new findings re: Neandertal mtDNA:
Neanderthals in central Asia and SiberiaNature advance online publication 30 September 2007. doi:10.1038/nature06193
Authors: Johannes Krause, Ludovic Orlando, David Serre, Bence Viola, Kay Prüfer, Michael P. Richards, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Catherine Hänni, Anatoly P. Derevianko & Svante Pääbo
Morphological traits typical of Neanderthals began to appear in European hominids at least 400,000 years ago and about 150,000 years ago in western Asia. After their initial appearance, such traits increased in frequency and the extent to which they are expressed until they disappeared shortly after 30,000 years ago. However, because most fossil hominid remains are fragmentary, it can be difficult or impossible to determine unambiguously whether a fossil is of Neanderthal origin. This limits the ability to determine when and where Neanderthals lived. To determine how far to the east Neanderthals ranged, we determined mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from hominid remains found in Uzbekistan and in the Altai region of southern Siberia. Here we show that the DNA sequences from these fossils fall within the European Neanderthal mtDNA variation. Thus, the geographic range of Neanderthals is likely to have extended at least 2,000âkm further to the east than commonly assumed.
Fascinating stuff!
Interesting that the Alma (Almasti) are said to have lived in the Altai Mountains.
Of course if Neanderthals were in Southern Siberia, that's supposed to be where the majority of Native Americans DNA traces back to. It's also a hop-skip-jump away from Northern China...
Modern Chinese have shovel-shaped incisors, a feature often claimed to result from Homo Erectus introgression, but mightn't it also be from Neanderthals?
Zeeb - Trust has been damaged by the contamination issue, but it wouldn't be surprising, would it? Alan Kellogg commented similarly only recently. Bounded north and south, but not confined in their range by anything eastward, and there was the suggestion that they may have extended into central China. It's not much of a stretch.
Why shouldn't we believe Paabo anymore? Did he fudge some data somewhere once?