New findings on Neanderthals and modern humans
Published: Thursday, Dec 12th 2024, 21:20
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Scientists have found evidence of a genetically formative central "mixing event" between Neanderthals and modern humans through genome studies. DNA analyses of bone fragments from several individuals living around 42,000 to 49,000 years ago in what is now Thuringia and the Czech Republic have provided new insights into the contact between the two human species.
The research institute reported on the study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig on Thursday. According to the study, there was apparently a significant "mixing event" between modern humans and Neanderthals between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago, whereby there must have been a coherent population of early humans outside of Africa during this period.
Evidence for a concentrated "gene flow" between modern humans and Neanderthals around this time is also provided by a second study, which researchers from the Max Planck Institute and the University of California also published on Friday. They analyzed the length of Neanderthal gene sequences in the genomes of more than 300 modern humans from different eras. From this, they concluded that this exchange began around 47,000 years ago and lasted for around 7,000 years.
Bones examined
For the first study, the researchers from Leipzig, together with experts from other countries, examined the bones of modern humans from the Ilsen Cave near Ranis in Thuringia and from the Zlaty kun site near Prague in the Czech Republic, around 230 kilometers away. These are the oldest genomes of modern humans from Ice Age Europe that have been sequenced by scientists to date.
Overall, it was probably a coherent population of only a few hundred people who inhabited a larger area in this region over a period of several generations. Gene variants were found in their DNA that indicate dark skin and hair color and brown eyes. This is "probably a result of the recent African origin of this early European population", the experts explained.
There was no evidence of recent mixing with Neanderthals in the genomes from Ranis and Zlaty kun. However, they still contained the same DNA traces of Neanderthals that can be found in all human populations living outside Africa today.
Mixing around 45,000 years ago
Remains of modern humans outside Africa that are older than 50,000 years, however, do not have these gene overlaps, according to the institute. Overall, the conclusion is that there was a "mixing event" between Neanderthals and modern humans around 45,000 to 49,000 years ago, after Homo sapiens had left Africa. The people from Ranis and Zlaty kun belonged to a split-off from the original population, which then gradually spread across Europe and Asia.
The second study involving the Max Planck Institute draws very similar conclusions. The results of the analysis showed "that the vast majority of Neanderthal ancestry can be traced back to a single, common and long-standing gene flow from Neanderthals to the common ancestors of all non-African humans today," explained Priya Moorjani from the University of California at Berkeley.
Spread outside Africa
According to the experts from Leipzig, additional information on the spread of Homo sapiens outside of Africa has also emerged from the data of the more than 300 DNA analyses. According to this, the "main migration wave" could have taken place 43,500 years ago or slightly earlier. Overall, researchers assume that groups of modern humans repeatedly left the African continent between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago.
These Homo sapiens then spread to Europe and Asia, where they met the later extinct Neanderthals. According to the Max Planck Institute, as a result of this mixing, all humans living outside Africa today usually carry one to two percent Neanderthal DNA in their genome.
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have common ancestors, but their evolutionary paths diverged 500,000 years ago. Neanderthals evolved in Europe and Asia, modern humans in Africa.
©Keystone/SDA
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