They found Ydnar, my 24,880th cousin 1,520 times removed

Finally! Bones from my 24,880th cousin, 1,520 times removed (give or take a few hundred for each number) was tested for mitochondrial DNA recently.

Yahoo has the story "Scientists map mitochondrial DNA of prehistoric Neanderthal" posted at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080807/sc_afp/usanthropologygeneticgermany_080807180928

The important paragraphs include:

"Researchers announced Thursday that they have sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of a Neanderthal, using genetic material recovered from a 38,000-year-old bone. "

and

"Research suggests that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and humans lived about 660,000 years ago."

Of course, this person doesn't have a name...we could call him Og, but that name is already taken. How about Ydnar? That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Who's Ydnar you ask? My distant cousin, of course.

Is this really a relative of mine? Of course he is - and yours too! Maybe I've missed by several generations (I assumed 25 years per generation in the calculations above), but after all these years it's great to finally find a Neanderthal in my family (not counting Uncle Harry, of course).