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An American man who learned he has Neanderthal DNA is hoping to meet others like him, after using a genetic test to reconnect with family.
Dennis "DWayne" Deel is among the millions of people who used a home DNA kit to look into their background, explaining to Newsweek he was hoping to find "my mom's side of the family who I had lost contact with over the years."
But when he received the results of his 23andMe test, he got a result he wasn't expecting: he had more Neanderthal DNA than 99 percent of the other customers who used the test.
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Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago, and are our closest ancient relatives. Some bred with early humans, leading to some modern-day humans to have Neanderthal DNA.
The rise in popularity of DNA tests outside of a medical setting like 23andMe and AncestryDNA has seen some people learn about their Neanderthal ancestry, with one man recently going viral for having more Neanderthal DNA than 82 percent of others who had taken the test.
After reading the story in Newsweek, Deel, 66, from Ohio, got in touch to share his own story, sharing his test result which told him: "You have more Neanderthal DNA than 99% of other customers."
And he told Newsweek he wears his Neanderthal heritage "as a badge of honor."
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"I always like to kid people that I'm part Hobbit because of my short stature and long arms," he said. "People tend to think I'm a little strange when I tell them I'm part Neanderthal."
Deel added that he has "never found anybody" with as much Neanderthal genetic material as himself.
But, after originally setting up 23andMe to reach out to family, he hoped his story could "conjure up enough interest so I can meet my Neanderthal relatives."
Newsweek previously spoke to Cesar de la Fuente, a University of Pennsylvania engineering presidential assistant professor researching ancient DNA.
De la Fuente said research into Neanderthal DNA "provides insights into human evolution, population dynamics, and genetic adaptations, including correlations with traits such as immunity and susceptibility to diseases."
A modern-day human having a "significant" amount of that DNA could "imply significant interbreeding" between Neanderthals and early modern humans in that person's ancestry, he said, but added that more research is needed into the implications.
And a recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory suggested Neanderthals may have been closer in similarity to early modern humans than originally thought.
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It found striking parallels between how Neanderthals and Homo sapiens made use of space in their dwellings, after a team analyzed an ancient site occupied by both species within a short space of time. There was no evidence that the two species met.
Both early modern humans and the Neanderthals used the site as a temporary base, as they were both mobile hunter-gatherers, rather than making it a permanent home.
It revealed common patterns of settlement, suggesting they shared comparable cognitive abilities for spatial organization.
"This research challenges previous assumptions about the cognitive capacity and behavioral complexity of Neanderthals," researcher Amélie Vallerand told Newsweek.
Correction 07/23/2024, 9:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated to indicate the reconstructed Neanderthal image is on the right-hand side.
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