Recovered 65,250 bp authentic Neanderthal nuclear DNA from 38,000-year-old Vindija male bone. Neanderthal and human genomes 99.5% identical. Neanderthal-human sequences share most recent common ancestor 706,000 years ago. Ancestral populations split 370,000 years ago averaging across modern groups. European split estimate 440,000 years ago. East Asian split estimate 390,000 years ago. Yoruba split estimate 290,000 years ago. Split predates earliest anatomically modern humans in Africa 195,000 years ago. Neanderthal sequences identical to chimpanzee at 34 human-specific substitution sites. No evidence of Neanderthal admixture in modern European nuclear genomes. Neanderthal contribution to Europeans 0% maximum likelihood with 95% CI up to 20%. Little modern human contamination confirmed by mtDNA PCR and damage signatures. Y-chromosome sequences prove male Neanderthal source. Random sampling across all human chromosomes. Targeted selection recovers specific Neanderthal sequences from metagenomic libraries. Mitochondrial data limited – nuclear data first reveals full divergence.