Estimated divergence time of human and Neanderthal populations

Range 270,000-440,000 years
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Green RE et al, A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science. 2010 May 7 328(5979):710-22. Heng Li, James Mullikin and David Reich, Supporting online material 14 Table S41PubMed ID20448178
Method SNP analysis. West Africans are used to represent modern humans in this analysis because in SOM 15-17, researchers find no evidence for gene flow between Neandertals and the ancestors of West Africans after their initial divergence. This makes interpretation of the population divergence date much simpler.
Comments Note-this is different than the Neandertal-Yoruba (African human) genetic divergence time which is 825,000 years BNID 105416.
Entered by Uri M
ID 105417