You don't happen to know any of the team that have worked on these bones, do you?

So, do you think that people have tried and failed? or most likely they haven't tried, or you don't have any information either way?

I refer you the personal response I has given Professor Trinkaus to your question: “No attempt has ever been made to extract DNA from the Lagar Velho child, since the bones are too fragile and have too little organic preservation. There is no intention to ever try to extract DNA from it. That is just as well, since DNA from the skeleton is unlikely to resolve any of the questions that surround the skeleton”.

mt DNA wouldn't reflect admixture anyway.

Francesc, so why do you think (or Professor Trinkhaus thinks) it is that DNA analysis would not resolve questions that surround the skeleton. I would have thought that quite the contrary would be true. In view of the fact that we know that European and Asian H. sapiens genomes DO reflect a certain degree of admixture with Neanderthals, is it not now generally accepted that we would expect to find hybrids amongst early modern human individuals that lived in areas known to have been occupied by Neanderthals?

This is my question too? Is there someone prepared to explain Prof. Trinkaus' view, or anyone knows the background to this viewpoint. Is there a dispute over the original conclusion that the bones really do indicate a morphology with characteristics of both modern humans and Neanderthals? I am also curious about how access to such precious bones is controlled? Are there issues other than the scientific ones that prevent further DNA analyses being carried out? Interesting also the comments on the apparent difference in the amount of research done in Spain and Portugal. Is this an issue of funding, or just a reflection of the level of interest in Portugal in this field of research?

James, sorry by not being able to provide more data on the issue. When I read your question I wrote to Professors Trinkaus and Zilhao. I've transcribed literal response he has given me. Unfortunately Professor Zilhao is traveling and I have not been able to answer yet. Anyway, I am a strong advocate of applying immunological or DNA methods to fossils that have questions or challenges. In fact, our team asked Drs Lowenstein and Garcia-Olivares (team member) to perform immunological tests on the skull VM-0 ("Orce Man") with results published in AJPA.

PDA: I ask all apologize for my English, my knowledge of this language is not very good.

Francesc, this is a very helpful response. Thank you very much. It would be good to hear what Prof. Zilhao has to say when he is back from travels, so please do pass on this response to me if you receive it. Do you have any comments about the questions of permission/access to do DNA analysis on precious bones? I am aware of some exciting new sequencing work that has been undertaken in Germany on Neanderthals, and assumed that this might be possible for a wider set of samples that have not yet had attempts made at DNA analysis.

By the way, your English is perfectly good. I am not sure what your language is, but am absolutely sure that your English is a thousand time better than my knowledge of your language, since I only speak English, Swahili and poor French! Thanks again!

n Spain paleoantropológicas investigations are fully monopolized. If you turn off the "official" line you're nobody, and therefore grants and government permits are scarce or absent. In Spain, subsidies are always to the same people.

As far as I know, no. Some time ago Zilhão also expressed oposition to the analysis on the same grounds of Trinkhaus: DNA is unlikely to resolve any of the questions that surround the skeleton

Even though the LV1 child is much newer than the Neanderthal individuals sequenced, it sounds unlikely that nuclear DNA could be recovered from the fragile bones. MtDNA wouldn't reflect admixture.

So DNA WILL not be recovered from LV1 child bones. How much is this to do with the technical reasons (fragility and too little organic preservation) and how much to do with the fact that the 'keepers' of the bones and the scientific story associated with them do not want them examined so as to avoid any change in conclusions about the real nature of the child?

Joao, your head is looking good, but what happened to your body! But more seriously, are the bones of LV1 still a topic of research, or are they now just being preserved in a museum or somewhere similar?