Génétique et paléoanthropologie : deux approches pour un dialogue autour des Néandertaliens Genetics and paleoanthropology: two approaches for one aim, the study of Neanderthals

Since the initial discovery of the Neanderthal, these fossils have been subject to intense scrutiny by paleoanthropologists, and numerous hypotheses about their biological history and theories about their extinction have been proposed. Beginning in 1997, a dozen Neanderthal fossils, from sites in Europe through Asia, have been sequenced and partial mtDNA (mitochrondrial DNA) and nDNA (nuclear DNA) sequences have been obtained. By studying these sequences, paleogenetics has provided complementary explanations about Neanderthal life and disappearance. In this brief overview, we focus mainly on the contributions of these two disciplines in order to examine four points: the difference between Neanderthals and modern humans; how ancient the divergence was between the Neanderthal and modern human lineages; whether the Neanderthals contributed to the mtDNA of modern humans; and if the Neanderthals may be characterized as a single and small-sized Neanderthal population.