The Neanderthal Genome is Here

The Neandertal research group at the Max Planck Institute.Frank Vinken / the Max Planck Institute

An international consortium of researchers has sequenced the 3 billion bases that make up the genome of our closest relative the Neandertal.Frank Vinken / the Max Planck Institute

Researcher Martin Kircher checking Illumina GAII flow cell.Frank Vinken / the Max Planck Institute

A flow cell used by the Illumina Genome Analyzer machine to study the Neanderthal genome.Frank Vinken / the Max Planck Institute

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal group.Johannes Krause / Atelier Daynes / Museum of the Krapina Neanderthals

Researchers in Germany said Tuesday they have completed the first high-quality sequencing of a Neanderthal genome and are making it freely available online for other scientists to study.

The genome produced from remains of a toe bone found in a Siberian cave is far more detailed than a previous "draft" Neanderthal genome sequenced three years ago by the same team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

- Svante Paabo, a geneticist who led the research

"The genome of a Neanderthal is now there in a form as accurate as that of any person walking the streets today," Svante Paabo, a geneticist who led the research, told The Associated Press in an email.

Richard G. Klein, a paleoanthropologist at Stanford University in California who was not involved in the study, said it was "a monumental achievement that no one would have thought possible 10 or perhaps even five years ago."

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The Neanderthal Genome is Here