Thanks to Marco Langbroek (once again) for bringing this to my attention. It seems that the Pääbo group's initial conclusions regarding the interbreeding of Neanderthals and the recent ancestors of modern humans might have been a tad premature. John Hawks, who's right in the thick of the research team has recently upped two updates. It seems they've expanded the comparative genome sample to 1000 from the original 5.
And what do you think they found? [I'm trying not to gloat, mind you.] With 1000 genomes in the mix, it seems that the similarities between us and the Neanderthals varies across the globe. There's no way they can go on saying that their evidence demands that we accept the interbreeding hypothesis. It's just one of a number of possible scenarios.
Complete the following phrase: Hip, hip, _____
