Neanderthal Genomic DNA from Vindija, Croatia

Genomic DNA from a Neanderthal bone sample was sequenced and compared to human and chimpanzee genomes in order to identify genetic changes that occurred during the last 500,000 years. More than 70 Neanderthal bone and tooth samples from different sites in Europe and western Asia were tested in order to identify a sample that is largely free of contaminating modern human mtDNA. DNA was extracted from the Vi-80 Neanderthal bone that was discovered in the Vindija Cave, Croatia in 1980. 454 sequencing recovered a total of 254,933 unique sequences, which were the aligned to human, chimpanzee, and mouse complete genome sequences. The WGS project and sequences deposited into the Trace Archive can be found using the Project data link.