“Which means that in effect Neanderthals are not really extinct at all, they are in us.” “Our job is to find out which of those 30,000 are most important, because they tell us what makes us uniquely human,” he says.Īt least half of the Neanderthal genome – probably as much as 60 to 70% of it, Pääbo believes – is to be found in living humans. One of the first of many surprises in his research was to find out that the genetic differences between Neanderthals and all modern humans(amounting to about 30,000) are far less than the differences between two random human beings alive today – around 3 million. He spawned the scientific field of paleogenetics, and has revolutionised our understanding of the past with his discovery of a previously unknown hominin (the term refers to modern and extinct humans, as well as our immediate ancestors), Denisova, and establishing that gene transfer between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had taken place about 70,000 years ago.

Pääbo is credited with rewriting the story of humanity by accomplishing what was once deemed impossible – sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal through the extraction of ancient DNA. This is as much their prize as mine and is really the first time something in our field has ever been awarded a Nobel prize.” To be fair to them, he says, “they were in a euphoric mood. “They gave me champagne and then they threw me in the pond outside – it’s something of a tradition here – it was rather cold, but they were very nice and removed my glasses and took my phone away beforehand.” Photograph: Kate Connolly/The GuardianĪt the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in the eastern German city of Leipzig, founded by the Swedish scientist 25 years ago, where he has installed a climbing wall in the foyer and a sauna on the roof, his co-workers did their best to stop the award from going to his head.

Svante Pääbo with the neanderthal skeleton in his office.

Neanderthal man paabo