A study published in the journal PLoS Genetics says people of European descent may be 5 percent Neanderthal.

Used sequence data from the Environmental Genome Project, Vincent Plagnol and Jeffrey Wall of the the University of Southern California found strong evidence for ancient admixture in both a European and a West African population, the study said.

The researchers looked at 34 people from Utah with ancestors from Northern and Western Europe and Yoruba people from West Africa.

The researchers focused on linkage "disequilibriums", or sections within genes that did not make sense if only modern human matings are considered, the London Telegraph reported.