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Seriously!
My daughter sent me the link to her DNA test results on 23andMe and the information is much more complicated and broad than the information I received through Ancestry.com. Either that or I just don't understand much about genetics. (Pretty likely)
According to 23andMe, all humans beings outside of Africa have between 1% and 4% Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthals were concentrated in Western Asia and Europe, especially northern Europe, and most heavily in what is now Finland.
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| From 23andMe.com |
About 35,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens from East Africa migrated northward into what is now Europe and Scandinavia, where they came into contact with and bred with married Neanderthals. The Neanderthals went extinct 30,000 years ago, and then during an ice age 20,000 years ago, surviving Homo sapiens were able to migrate to every continent on the planet except for Antarctica. Ta Dah! So that's how we are partly cave people.
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| from 23andMe.com |
In addition to learning that she has 2.7% Neanderthal DNA, my daughter also learned about her haplogroup. I don't really understand that well enough to explain it, but this is what her results show:
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| From 23andMe.com |
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| from 23andMe.com |
She is part of haplogroup W.
And her ancestry might include the DNA matching DNA from these countries.
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| from 23andMe.com |
DNA matching that of people in Ireland, UK and the Netherlands makes sense and is more specific information than what I received from Ancestry.com. I knew I had ancestors from Holland, so this matches what I knew. What Pakistan and northern India have to do with our ancestry is a mystery to me.
Kind of fun! Even though I'm not sure what some of it means.
These are the results of my Ancestry.com genetic testing:
No surprises, except for the 26% Scandinavian DNA. I had thought it was a good bit less than that.
No mention of Neanderthal. No mention of Denisovans. There was a lot of information in the e-mailed results about the areas of the world listed, and I learned that through the centuries, through the millennia, countries' borders and names changed so that to say that someone is from Norway, for example, doesn't really mean anything. They are from that geographical area, but who knows what country, if any, it might have been so long ago that there is no written history.
However, my daughter used a kit from 23andMe and her results in terms of countries do not list Scandinavia at all, which can't be possible. I was there when she was born so I do know that she is my daughter. But her test does say that she has 2.7% Neanderthal genetic material, as does the average 23andMe user.
None of us has any of the Neanderthal characteristics listed and since the average user of this test has the same 2.7% genetic material, I think that perhaps the test isn't all that accurate. And I doubt that Ancestry.com's test is particularly useful except for people who have no idea where their ancestors came from.
Anyway, it was fun, sort of, to see the results, even though I don't really think either my daughter or I learned anything all that surprising.
Anyone tempted to try the testing should be forewarned that the tests do not require just a cheek swab; they require spit, lots and lots of spit, and it's kind of gross.
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