Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Barcelona, Spain.
Ann Anat. 2012 Jan 20;194(1):133-7. doi: 10.1016/j.aanat.2011.01.014. Epub 2011 Mar 17.
El Sidrón (Asturias, north of Spain) is a subterranean karstic system, where the remains of a contemporaneous social Neanderthal group dated to about 49,000 years ago have been being excavated since their accidental discovery in 1994. Due to the particular preservation conditions of this site, all individuals identified so far have preserved DNA, and the anticontamination measures implemented during the excavation have made palaeogenetic studies possible on all individuals. The El Sidrón samples provide unique information on the kinship relationships and on the internal genetic diversity of Neanderthal groups, thus yielding for first time empirical data for the generation of demographic models of these extinct humans. Moreover, the exceptional preservation of some bone samples has allowed the retrieval of nuclear genes associated with some phenotypic traits involved in pigmentation, blood group, language or taste perception, as well as a significant fraction (0.1%) of the nuclear genome. A future project on Neanderthal genomic diversity could be based on at least some of the El Sidrón specimens.
埃尔西德龙（西班牙北部阿斯图里亚斯）是一个地下喀斯特系统，自 1994 年偶然发现以来，一直有一个同时代的社会尼安德特人在那里被挖掘。由于该遗址的特殊保存条件，迄今为止发现的所有个体都保存了 DNA，而且在挖掘过程中实施的防污染措施使得对所有个体进行古遗传学研究成为可能。埃尔西德龙的样本提供了关于尼安德特人群体亲缘关系和内部遗传多样性的独特信息，从而首次为这些已灭绝人类的人口模型生成提供了经验数据。此外，一些骨骼样本的保存异常完好，使得与色素沉着、血型、语言或味觉感知等表型特征相关的核基因以及核基因组的很大一部分（0.1%）得以提取。未来关于尼安德特人基因组多样性的项目至少可以基于埃尔西德龙的一些样本。
