Neanderthal-Human Hybrid Reveals that Two Species Interbred Relatively Recently

First Posted: Jun 22, 2015 01:16 PM EDT

It turns out that at least one early European had a close Neanderthal ancestor. Scientists have analyzed the DNA from a 37,000 to 42,000-year-old human mandible and have found that six to nine percent of this person's genome came from Neanderthals.

Present-day humans who have their roots outside sub-Saharan Africa carry one to three percent of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes. Until now, though, researchers have thought it more likely that early humans coming from Africa mixed with the Neanderthals in the Middle East around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, before spreading into Asia, Europe and the rest of the world. However, radiocarbon dating of remains from sites across Europe suggests that modern humans and Neanderthals both lived in Europe for up to 5,000 years and that they may have interbred there too.

In this case, the researchers examined a 40,000-year-old jawbone that was uncovered in Romania. The researchers analyzed DNA from the fossil, which is one of the earliest modern-human remains found in Europe.

"The data from the jawbone imply that human mixed with Neanderthals not just in the Middle East but in Europe as well," said Qiaomei Fu, one of the lead researchers of the new study, in a news release.

With that said, it doesn't seem as if this person has any direct descendants in Europe today. It could be that he was part of an early migration of modern humans to Europe that interacted closely with Neanderthals and eventually became extinct.

The researchers hope to continue making discoveries in order to reconstruct the interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans in more detail. This, in turn, may tell scientists a bit more about the migration and evolution of humans.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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TagsNeanderthal, Neanderthal ancestors, Human, human ancestor, DNA, Migration, Evolution