Despite going out tens of thousands of years ago , Neanderthals ' influence on human remains . Every forward-looking human has DNA inherit from when our ancestors mated with this other species of hominid ,   although some have more than others .

The mien of these genes is no longer surprising , butnow researchershave find a queer location for some of this hereditary material : centromere . Centromeres are in the midsection   of chromosome , where   the “ pinched - in ” spot gives chromosomes their traditional X - shape . These regions are pulled aside when cells divide , so defects can fall out during the   process , which can lead to cancer , among others .

Since centromeres contain many repeat features , they   are difficult to represent in detail . Despite these difficulties , the researchers decide to   tail haplotype within them . These are a radical of factor inherited together and can be used to track evolution .

Centromeres are not affected by the “ crossover ” process that can befall between chromosomes when egg and sperm cell are created , so the squad thought they may   hold   genes from a long time ago . The squad tested this onDrosophilafruit fly , demonstrating that they could indeed track centromeric haplotype .

They then look for these in humanity by using centromere sequences from the1000 Genomes Project , the large public catalogue of human genetic variation , roll up the genome of 2,504 someone from 26 populations .

As they describe in an coming issue of the JournaleLife , they find that some Neanderthal haplotypes are found in the kinetochore of chromosome 11 in non - African genomes , which   could play a role in   one of our senses . Humans have roughly 400 cistron for smell sensory receptor and 34 are located within the chromosome 11 haplotype . For some the great unwashed , their sense of smell might be partially thanks to Neanderthals .

Another finding was   the bearing of a much older haplotype that seem to be derived from an unknown hominid . Maybe this is the samemysterious hominidthat Neanderthals mated with beforeHomo sapienscame out of Africa . Or maybe it is a completely different population that   we are yet to discover .

On the X chromosome , the team found several major centromeric haplotypes extending back almost half a million years . Peculiarly , one of the oldest was only present in innovative human from the African continent .