<P> However, an analysis of a first draft of the Neanderthal genome by the same team released in May 2010 indicates interbreeding may have occurred . "Those of us who live outside Africa carry a little Neanderthal DNA in us," said Pääbo, who led the study . "The proportion of Neanderthal - inherited genetic material is about 1 to 4 percent (later refined to 1.5 to 2.1 percent). It is a small but very real proportion of ancestry in non-Africans today," says Dr. David Reich of Harvard Medical School, who worked on the study . This research compared the genome of the Neanderthals to five modern humans from China, France, sub-Saharan Africa, and Papua New Guinea . </P> <P> This indicates a gene flow from Neanderthals to modern humans, i.e., interbreeding between the two populations . Since the three non-African genomes show a similar proportion of Neanderthal sequences, the interbreeding must have occurred early in the migration of modern humans out of Africa, perhaps in the Middle East . No evidence for gene flow in the direction from modern humans to Neanderthals was found . Gene flow from modern humans to Neanderthals would not be expected if contact occurred between a small colonizing population of modern humans and a much larger resident population of Neanderthals . A very limited amount of interbreeding could explain the findings, if it occurred early enough in the colonization process . </P> <P> It is suggested that 20 percent of Neanderthal DNA survived in modern humans, notably expressed in the skin, hair, and diseases of modern people . Modern human genes involved in making keratin--the protein found in skin, hair, and nails--have specially high levels of Neanderthal DNA . For example, around 66% of East Asians contain the Neanderthal skin gene, while 70% of Europeans contain the Neanderthal gene which affects skin colour . POU2F3 is found in around 66 percent of East Asians, while the Neanderthal version of BNC2, which affects skin color, among other traits, is found in 70 percent of Europeans . Neanderthal are the variants in genes that affect the risk of several diseases, including lupus, biliary cirrhosis, Crohn's disease, and type 2 diabetes. 8% of Neanderthal DNA comes from an unknown group of archaic humans, tantalizing hints of unknown groups from Asia and Africa that left genes in Denisovans and modern humans, respectively . The genetic variant of the MC1R gene linked to red hair in Neanderthals has not been found in modern humans, hence red hair may be an example of convergent evolution . </P> <P> While interbreeding is viewed as the most parsimonious interpretation of the genetic discoveries, the authors point out they cannot conclusively rule out an alternative scenario, in which the source population of non-African modern humans was already more closely related to Neanderthals than other Africans were, because of ancient genetic divisions within Africa . Other studies carried out since the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome have cast doubt on the level of admixture between Neanderthals and modern humans, or even as to whether the groups interbred at all . One study has asserted that the presence of Neanderthal or other archaic human genetic markers can be attributed to shared ancestral traits between the lineages originating from a 500,000 - year - old common ancestor . </P>

As early as 115 000 years ago humans began to migrate from africa to which of the following regions