Study: Humans, Neanderthals Interbred Earlier Than Thought

Neanderthals and humans may have interbred must earlier than researchers had previously believed, according to a new study. Such a finding comes from a DNA analysis revealing what is (likely) an instance of human and neanderthal interbreeding many thousands of years before the oldest documented instance of such. If the analysis is correct, the interbreeding happened about 100,000 years ago.

Such information comes from a study recently published in the journal Nature. The research was performed by scientists from around the globe, including some from the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Cornel University, and more. Of particular interest, says one research, is that they found evidence of human DNA mixed with a neanderthal genome instead of the opposite — neanderthal DNA mixed in human genomes.

Said co-team leader and professor Adam Siepel:

It's been known for several years, following the first sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2010, that Neanderthals and humans must have interbred. But the data so far refers to an event dating to around 47,000-65,000 years ago, around the time that human populations emigrated from Africa. The event we found appears considerably older than that event.

To reach their conclusion, the researchers used computer modeling algorithms to contrast genomes from modern humans with partial and full genomes derived from "archaic humans." A pair of neanderthals recovered from Spain and Croatia were sequenced for this research project, and were found to lack DNA that would have come from the archaic humans.

SOURCE: EurekAlert