ABSTRACT
Genetic studies of anatomically modern humans who lived in Europe in the late Pleistocene and who are commonly called Cro-Magnon have focused mainly on the analysis of a non-coding region of the mitochondrial genome (hypervariable region i, hvr-i). The analysis of this molecular marker has shown that the genetic variability of the first european H. sapiens was not so different from that of the human populations that inhabit the same areas today. These analyses have also confirmed a strong genetic discontinuity between the Neanderthals and us.
