Unless perhaps all of your ancestors came from Africa.
Neanderthals are believed not to be humans but to have evolved separately from what we now refer to as homo sapiens. However, scientists have now identified a piece of Neanderthal DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome and believe this haplotype is present because of mating between our ancestors and Neanderthals.
Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. Now a study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, which is available at http://goo.gl/1v2KQ. The study identifies Neanderthal DNA in non-Africans.
While Neanderthals' ancestors may have left Africa, the Neanderthals themselves apparently never lived on the African continent.
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