Paleogeneticists from Germany, USA, Croatia and Spain concluded that Cro-Magnons (ancient Homo sapiens) interbred with Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) much earlier than previously thought. The results of the study were published by the authors in the journal Nature, and briefly reported by Science News.
Scientists compared the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans (Homo sp. Altai or Homo sapiens ssp. Denisova), the remains of which were found in Altai, with the genetic material of chromosome 21 of two Neanderthals found in Spain and Croatia, as well as the genomes of 504 modern Africans. In the genome of the latter, there are no traces of Neanderthals, unlike Europeans, which contain up to three percent of the genes of Homo neanderthalensis.
Paleogenetics showed that Neanderthals from Altai interbred with Homo sapiens about a hundred thousand years ago. The investigated Neanderthals from Spain and Croatia, as well as the Denisovan man from Altai, did not interbreed with Homo sapiens. From Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals inherited genes associated with speech and liver function.
Neanderthal bone fragment
Image: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
This may mean that interspecific crossbreeding between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals occurred in the Middle East or Altai not 47-65 thousand years ago, as previously thought, but much earlier. It also indicates the presence of another (more ancient) wave of migration of Homo sapiens from Africa, which occurred more than a hundred thousand years ago.
Previously, paleogenetics believed that Homo sapiens first came to Europe about 65 thousand years ago. Scientists also found that Cro-Magnons in Asia (China) were no later than 80-120 thousand years ago. Scientists came to their conclusions, having discovered 47 teeth of at least 13 humans belonging to Homo sapiens in the Fuyan cave in Hunan province in southeast China.
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