Geneticists and archaeologists could soon be working together to investigate the genetic diversity of our human ancestors in Africa, a meeting on the 'Human Genome and Africa' was told last month. In Europe, Neanderthal DNA has already been sequenced successfully. But ancient DNA has not yet been extracted from African hominid fossils, partly because very little organic material is preserved in African fossils more than 10,000 years old, as preservation requires cool, dry conditions.