Bonnie, no, I had not seen the article you mentioned, but I have now read it. I see that the authors think the European imprint left in Africans by back migration is most similar to Sardinians, among modern Europeans. Unfortunately, 1000 Genomes doesn't give much sequence data on Sardinians as a group, so it is difficult to assess their Neanderthal SNPs in comparison to the Neanderthal SNPs of other Europeans. Still, it seems unlikely to me that the Neanderthal imprint in Sardinians in the 16,813-bp region that I mentioned would differ by 20 SNPs from that of other Europeans, especially since the number of Neanderthal SNPs among Europeans, South Asians, and East Asians differ from each other by much less than 20 over this 16,813-bp region. So, although I concede that I don't have as much expertise as the authors of the Science paper, I am reluctant to agree that the Neanderthal-related SNPs in Africans can be explained strictly by back migration of Eurasians into Africa. It will be interesting to see what further research shows. On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Bonnie Schrack via < genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Hi Obed, > > What an interesting finding. Are you aware of this paper? > "Ancient Ethiopian genome reveals extensive Eurasian admixture > throughout the African continent" > http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6262/820 > > Although I appreciate your thinking of our work, it seems just as likely > to me that you have found traces of the Neandertal DNA that was included > in the back-migration to Africa from the Mediterranean-Middle Eastern > region, several thousand years ago. > > I hope we'll all continue to investigate and learn more about this > question! > > Bonnie > > -- > *Farther Back We All Connect* > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GENEALOGY-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >