HE is 38,000 years old and nothing but a pile of bones, but one day we may be able to rebuild him. Scientists are planning to reconstruct the genetic code of Neanderthal man.

Anthropologists plan to apply the forensic techniques used to map the human genome to chart all 3 billion chemical “base-pairs” in the DNA of man’s close but long-dead relative.

The researchers believe the DNA of the two species is 99.96% the same, but will not attempt to recreate a living Neanderthal in the laboratory.

Once all the genes and their correct order are known, cloning would theoretically be possible in the future — just as scientists have talked of resurrecting the mammoth from extinction using DNA samples.

Scientists in Germany and America have already decoded 1m DNA base-pairs from the leg bone of a fossilised Neanderthal found in a cave in Croatia.

They believe that if they can crack his entire code it will help explain the differences between Neanderthals and humans and give clues how to prevent disease and illness.

The two-year project has been launched at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany. Researchers led by Svante Paabo, a Swedish anthropologist who was the first to extract DNA from a Neanderthal fossil, will chip away the top layer of bone and use a dentist’s drill to collect samples.

Most Neanderthal remains are so old that the DNA has been contaminated by bacteria or the touch of archeologists.

In some cases only 3% of the DNA in the remains is Neanderthal, but the fossil found in Croatia is largely uncontaminated.

Paabo is resisting any temptation to imitate Dr Frankenstein. “We will not do an assembly,” he said. “We will not use the sequence to put together the entire Neanderthal.”

However, the project has found a resonance in Germany. Paabo has announced the project just days ahead of the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the first Neanderthal remains by quarry workers in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf in August 1856.

Ever since, paleontologists and anthropologists have been trying to uncover the role of these stockily built individuals in human evolution.

Like man, the Neanderthals were descended from the ape. They colonised mainland Europe and western Asia from 500,000 years ago until 30,000 BC.

Scientists are divided on their level of intelligence. Some believe their small brain told them never to cross water unless it was possible to see land on the other side.

But Steve Mithen, professor of archeology at Reading University, has credited them with inventing music by singing and using dance-like movements to communicate with children.

The ancestors of modern man originated in Africa but moved into Europe to displace the Neanderthals. For several thousand years they coexisted before the Neanderthals died out, often under the blade of a human axe. Scientists believe they lost out because, although very strong, they lacked the nimble fingers to make sophisticated tools and weapons.

The prototype of both modern man and of Neanderthals broke away from the great ape about 5m years ago but the division between our ancestors and Neanderthals is no more than 500,000 years old.

One aim of the new research is to find out if there is evidence that man and his hulking relative ever interbred and, if so, what happened to the offspring.

Scientists will use a new sequencing machine, described as a cross between an iPod and a washing machine, to “read” up to 250,000 DNA strands at a time.

Michael Egholm, vice-president of molecular biology at 454 Life Sciences, the US firm that has devised the machine, said: “It is like working with the ultimate crime sample.”

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