The calcite-encrusted skeleton of an ancient human, still embedded in rock deep inside a cave in Italy, has yielded the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever found. 
 
 These molecules, which could be up to 170,000 years old, could one day help yield the most complete picture yet of Neanderthal life, researchers say. 
 
 Although modern humans are the only remaining human lineage, many others once lived on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of today's Europeans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa — 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone living outside Africa today is Neanderthal in origin. [Image Gallery: Our Closest Human Ancestor] 
 
 In 1993, scientists found an extraordinarily intact skeleton of an ancient human amidst the stalactites and stalagmites of the limestone cave of Lamalunga, near Altamura in southern Italy — a discovery they said had the potential to reveal new clues about Neanderthals. 
 
 "The Altamura man represents the most complete skeleton of a single nonmodern human ever found," study co-author Fabio Di Vincenzo, a paleoanthropologist at Sapienza University of Rome, told Live Science. "Almost all the bony elements are preserved and undamaged." 
 
 The Altamura skeleton bears a number of Neanderthal traits, particularly in the face and the back of the skull. However, it also possesses features that usually aren't seen in Neanderthals — for instance, its brow ridges were even more massive than those of Neanderthals.These differences made it difficult to tell which human lineage the Altamura man might have belonged to. Moreover, the Altamura skeleton remains partially embedded in rock, making it difficult to analyze. 
 
 Now, new research shows that DNA from a piece of the skeleton's right shoulder blade suggests the Altamura fossil was a Neanderthal. The shape of this piece of bone also looks Neanderthal, the researchers said. 
 
 In addition, the scientists dated the skeleton to about 130,000 to 170,000 years old. This makes it the oldest Neanderthal from which DNA has ever been extracted. (These bones are not the oldest known Neanderthal fossils — the oldest ones ever found are about 200,000 years old. This isn't the oldest DNA ever extracted from a human, either; that accolade goes to 400,000-year-old DNA collected from relatives of Neanderthals.) 
 
 The bone is so old that its DNA is too degraded for the researchers to sequence the fossil's genome — at least with current technology. However, they noted that next-generation DNA-sequencing technologies might be capable of such a task, which "could provide important results on the Neanderthal genome," study co-author David Caramelli, a molecular anthropologist at the University of Florence in Italy, told Live Science. 
 
 Whereas previous fragmentary fossils of different Neanderthals provided a partial picture of what life was like for Neanderthals, the Altamura skeleton could help paint a more complete portrait of a Neanderthal — for instance, it could reveal more details about Neanderthals' genetics, anatomy, ecology and lifestyle, the researchers said. 
 
 "We have a nearly complete human fossil skeleton to describe and study in detail. It is a dream," Di Vincenzo said. "His morphology offers a rare glimpse on the earliest phase of the evolutionary history of Neanderthals and on one of the most crucial events in human evolution. He can help us better understand when — and, in particular, how — Neanderthals evolved." 
 
 The scientists detailed their findings online March 21 in the Journal of Human Evolution. 
 
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 Only the skull and part of a shoulder are visible on Altamura Man. The rest of the body is incorporated into calcite concretions. 
 
 The oldest samples of Neanderthal DNA have been extracted from remains embedded in a cave in southern Italy, confirming that the so-called Altamura Man was a Neanderthal who lived around 150,000 years ago. 
 
 Consisting of a virtually complete, fossilized hominin skeleton in an excellent state of preservation, the Altamura Man was discovered by a group of speleologists in 1993 in the karstic cave of Lamalunga, near the town of Altamura in Puglia. The area is rich in prehistorical findings, including a trail of dinosaur footprints. 
 
 The remains “represent one of the most extraordinary hominin specimens ever found in Europe,” Giorgio Manzi, professor of paleoanthropology and human ecology at Rome’s Sapienza University, David Caramelli, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florence, and their colleagues wrote in the Journal of Human Evolution. 
 
 “It is of great interest that mtDNA was sufficiently preserved to permit paleogenetic analysis,” they added. 
 
 The Altamura Man was found by chance when cavers spotted a 26-foot-deep well. Inside was a tunnel that opened into a large cavity, with other tunnels branching out from it. 
 
 One of the tunnels, about 200 feet long, led to another cave, rich with stalagmites. There, encrusted in a corner and looking like a large piece of coral, was a skeleton lying on its back. 
 
 Only the skull, which appears upside down, and part of a shoulder were visible. The rest of the body is incorporated into calcite concretions. 
 
 Researchers assume the unfortunate hominid fell in a well and remained trapped there, dying of starvation or from lack of water intake. The skeleton was then covered with droplets of limestone that helped preserve it for millennia. 
 
 “Although other fossil samples of Homo neanderthalensis can be found in Europe and the Near East, none can equal the excellent state of preservation and the completeness of the Altamura Man,” Manzi said. 
 
 The cave’s remoteness and the fossil’s condition have meant that since the discovery, the Altamura Man has remained undisturbed. 
 
 “For many years after its discovery, the only information we had on this extraordinary fossil skeleton was based primarily on on-site photographs and observations, which were biased by the presence of calcite formations,” the researchers wrote. 
 
 Beginning their work six years ago, Manzi and colleagues finally obtained permission to remove a piece of bone from the skeleton. 
 
 “The sample consists of the articular portion of the right scapula,” Manzi and his colleagues said. 
 
 “In contrast to most of the bones of the main assemblage, it was free from major concretion apart from a superficial film of calcite,” they added. 
 
 Morphometric examinations and bone DNA analysis confirmed the Altamura Man was a Neanderthal, the species that inhabited Europe between 200,000 and 40,000 years ago. 
 
 More precisely, the hominin is estimated to have lived approximately 150,000 years ago, in the late-Middle to early-Late Pleistocene -- an ancient phase in the existence of Neanderthals. 
 
 Indeed, uranium-thorium dating of the sample and other fragments of stalactites revealed that the calcite concretions started to accumulate on the rocks and skeleton between 172,000 and 130,000 years ago, in the middle of the second last quaternary glaciation. 
 
 “The results of the paleogenetic analysis have indicated the presence of endogenous DNA, even if highly fragmented,” Caramelli said. 
 
 “These first genetic data allow, among other things, to consider the Altamura skeleton as the most ancient Neanderthal from which portions of genetic material DNA have been extracted and, as such, a highly suitable candidate for interesting genomic analyses,” he added.
– About 150,000 years ago, an individual wandered into a cave, fell into a well, and never came back up. Thanks to that accident, scientists have their hands on the oldest Neanderthal DNA in existence, reports Phys.org. The skeleton known as Altamura Man was found in a cave in Italy in 1993, with only its head and part of a shoulder visible. The rest of the body is kind of fused into the rock, explains Discovery. Only recently did researchers get permission to extract a bone sample from the shoulder, and that sample confirmed that Altamura Man is indeed a Neanderthal who roamed the region between 130,000 and 170,000 years ago, they write in the Journal of Human Evolution. "The Altamura Man represents the most complete skeleton of a single nonmodern human ever found," a study co-author from Rome's Sapienza University tells Live Science. "Almost all the bony elements are preserved and undamaged." The DNA could fill in important gaps about the Neanderthal line, but there's a catch: The sample is so degraded that current technology is unable to sequence its genome. Another researcher, however, thinks improvements in DNA-sequencing techniques coming in the near future will fix that. (Another recent archaeological find reveals the timing of Neanderthal-human sex.)