Tens of thousands of years ago, modern humans mated with Neanderthals. But exactly how and when that happened, and who those groups of humans were, was less known. New research adds some clues.
For millennia, humans stayed in Africa. But then, roughly 100,000 years ago, humans started leaving the continent in waves."We don't know exactly when"says Sümer, but"sometime about 50,000 years or so, there was a group that migrated into Europe and Asia."
Peter and his colleagues got around the problem with a new computational approach. They took the beat-up DNA sequences from 59 ancient humans living thousands of years ago, primarily in Eurasia, and compared them to good quality DNA sequences from a few Neanderthals and 275 people today with very little Neanderthal ancestry.
Sümer found that this group of early modern humans was related and living in a small population of 200 to 300 individuals. In addition, they lived at least 45,000 years ago. It turns out,"we just identified the oldest modern human family ever sequenced and ever known actually," says Sümer.3% of the DNA of these early humans, arrayed in fairly long stretches, came from Neanderthals — the result of that earlier interbreeding, and pointing to more recent Neanderthal ancestry.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Modern human ancestors and Neanderthals mated during a 7,000-year-long 'pulse,' 2 new studies revealKristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in anthropology and classical archaeology and was formerly a university professor and researcher.
Read more »
DNA reveals new estimate for when modern humans began 'mixing' with NeanderthalsThe research provides insights into the demographics of early modern humans.
Read more »
A new timeline of when Neanderthals and ancient humans interbredEvan Bush is a science reporter for NBC News.
Read more »
Tens of thousands rally at New Zealand Parliament against bill to alter Indigenous rightsNew Zealand's Parliament was briefly suspended after Maori lawmakers staged a haka to disrupt the vote on a contentious bill that would reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty.
Read more »
Tens of Thousands March for Indigenous Rights at New Zealand ParliamentJessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
Read more »
Gov. Spencer Cox’s new budget has a gift for tens of thousands of UtahnsThe keystone element of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox's budget proposal is a plan to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits.
Read more »