Are you related to a Neanderthal? | BBC Timestamp

Today, most people from outside Africa can trace up to 4% of their DNA back to Neanderthals. What might that Neanderthal DNA mean for us today? What sort of effects might it be having in our genomes? Well, it's very difficult to say, but I have some results from U2 which can shed some light on it. So this is a gene on chromosome 16 called WFDC1 and it's controlling cell growth. We don't know what difference it makes to have different copies of it. So this is very early stages at the moment, but we're starting to understand the implications of having some Neanderthal genes in our genomes. And actually we do know something about Neanderthal genes which is very interesting and that's that we know that at least some Neanderthals had red hair and that's very useful for Victor. So, catching up with Victor again. Hello. This is great. So we've actually got hair colour. What's great about working in this nature is that it gives you the ability to test out different looks, different hair and different skin colour before you commit. This is grounded in science. Okay, it's looking quite artistic, but there's science at the base of it. And also the skin colour is that you've done really pale skin. So this is somebody who lived in a northern climate. Right, much like us. He's really starting to come together. Now there's one question I want to ask is, can we tell how this individual died? It's a great question and usually we can't, but in this case the skeleton gives us some really interesting clues. On the outside of your bones is a membrane and you can see here where it's roughened, that membrane was laying down new bone at around the time that this individual died. And it's at the distal end of the tibia, it's also in the distal femora. And the real key thing about this is that it's on both sides and it's symmetrical and actually that is pretty indicative of one particular type of disease and it's called hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy. And it basically means, in English, okay, so it basically means you're laying down new bone but you're doing it in such a way that we know that that's related to lung and sometimes heart disease. But it makes it very probable that this individual had either a bad lung infection or lung cancer. Yeah, it's one of the very rare cases where we have a fossil where we can actually make some indication of the cause of death. So from these few bones we started with, we've established that Neanderthals were strong, adaptable, and possibly had an emergent culture and budding language. They were well suited to their ice age home and given they were such a successful species, they survived for 350,000 years. Yet when the crunch came, they may simply have been unlucky. It is very sad that they're no longer with us, but we have been able to bring Laferrassi 1 back to life with the help of all of this scientific evidence and our amazing model makers. We started with a composite skeleton based on Laferrassi 1 and other finds, and over two months we've carefully been reconstructing him. With extraordinary attention to detail, the muscles were painstakingly added to rebuild his body. His face was recreated using forensic techniques, then the skin and hair were added. Now he's finished and he's here. So should we go and have a look? Absolutely, yeah. This is so exciting, we have literally never seen this before. Under a sheet, go on Invicta. Oh my goodness, he's really lifelike. Still trying to get my head around the fact that this guy is in my ancestry, not that far back. John, what do you think? Give me a break, you look like twins. Isn't he wonderful? I mean this just looks like a living, breathing Nandatol. I'm slightly freaked out by him actually, I just think he's going to start moving. That is unbelievable, it's uncanny. John, what do you reckon? You know, it's just got this sort of humanising effect to put the flesh on, and the challenge is to make something that's different from us look different, when in fact the details point to great similarity. Oh, I can just imagine him striding off. What do you reckon, is he muscly enough? He's got to be, but it's really impressive isn't it? It's a case where focusing on bone doesn't give the whole picture. Yeah, Vic's such a good job, he's absolutely brilliant.