Artist's impression of a Neanderthal hunter. New evidence suggests the Neanderthals and modern humans interbred.
Credit: American Museum of Natural History
SYDNEY: Modern humans contain a little bit of Neanderthal, according to a new theory, because the two interbred and became one species.
The theory is the latest addition to the ongoing debate about what happened to this early species of human.
In a paper published this week in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of European researchers report a "mosaic of modern human and archaic Neanderthal features" in 30,000 -year-old human fossils from Romania.
Co-author Erik Trinkaus from Washington University explains: "[Some] closely related species of mammals freely interbreed, produce fertile viable offspring, and blend populations." This is what appears to have happened with Neanderthals and modern humans, he says.
Shorter and stouter than modern humans, but with larger brains, Neanderthals lived in Europe, central Asia and the Middle East for about 170,000 years before disappearing between 33,000 to 24,000 years ago.
Their extinction coincided with the migration of modern humans out of Africa and across Europe. Few mysteries in the history of human ancestry have been as hotly debated as what caused the extinction of the Neanderthals.
Some scientific theories have Neanderthals dying out because they were less well-adapted to the climate changes that occurred across Europe at that time. Others cite evidence of a more brutal end, in which Neanderthals were slaughtered by modern humans.
This new study helps to settle the controversy. According to the researchers, the populations probably blended together through sexual reproduction. "Extinction through absorption is a common phenomenon," says Trinkaus.
The human remains were found in Pestera Muierii ('Cave of the Old Woman'), an elaborate cave system in Romania. First uncovered in 1952, the fossils remained poorly dated and largely ignored until recently.
Using carbon dating techniques, Trinkaus and colleagues found that the remains were 30,000 years old. Their analysis of the bones revealed diagnostic skeletal features of modern humans, including smaller eyebrow ridges, very narrow holes where the nostrils join the skull, and a shin bone that is flat on one side and concave on the other.
However the mostly human skeletons also possessed distinct Neanderthal features; features that were not present in ancestral modern humans in Africa. These include a large bulge at the back of the skull, a more prominent projection around the elbow joint, and a narrow socket at the shoulder joint.
Further analysis of one skeleton's shoulder showed that these humans did not have the full set of anatomical adaptations for throwing projectiles, such as spears, during hunting.
According to the researchers, this mixture of human and Neanderthal features suggests that a complicated reproductive scenario existed as humans and Neandertals interbred. The hypothesis that the Neanderthals were simply replaced should therefore be abandoned, they suggest.
Trinkaus says we may carry some of the genetic legacy of the Neanderthals within us. However it would be difficult to determine which of us are more closely related to the Neanderthals: "there has been 30,000 to 35,000 years of human evolution since then," he says.
What about the advanced
What about the advanced societies of China and India? Most of Europe wasn't all that advanced until much later in prehistory/history.
I think we should reserve
I think we should reserve judgement until we get an exact definition of the neanderthal genome. Research is currently underway on a perfectly preserved ancient bone.However the gene microcephalin that appeared in humans migrating to Europe and later spread to over 70% of the human species could have arisen from neanderthals. Most likely they traded information with eachother. They were in contact with humans for about 20000 years and even inhabited the same caves as the 24000 year old evidence in Spain reflects. Another interesting fact is that humans may have bred with chimps before completely speciating.
What if no interbred
Lets assume that Neanderthals didn't interbreed with our ancestors, then the question remains, why did they become extinct?
Perhaps our ancestors exterminated them, but then, where are the remains of their butcheries?. Also, according with our social behaviour, sometimes their females could have been taken as war prizes -since they resembled so close our own ones-, perhaps even along with their children. Are there any traces of Humans and Neanderthals living together?
Maybe our ancestors brought with them some diseases that Nearderthals couldn´t survive, and of course, we survived the ones brought by them. Something like this happened after Columbus came to America, tens of millions of native americans died in only a few years, just because of newly imported diseases.
Neanderthal
Not an Expert !! But They Call them Neanderthal I call them Early Humans
They Rather put us closer to an Ape than the So called Neanderthal
Absolutely is Possible to Interbreed Why Not??
(offensive commentary deleted)
The theory Of modern human Is Because we allways think that we are more
Superior than anything else on the Planet.
Neanderthal Had to be Smart He would of never Survive All that time By being Stupid and ignorant to survive in those harsh times you had to be a surviver,intelligent.
Perhaps you prove your words
Perhaps you prove your words by your words.
other possibilities?
Regarding interbreeding - if it was possible, I expect it was at least attempted (based on what we know about human behaviour). I can't begin to guess how successful such attemts may have been -- or how often it may have happened. I expect it was taboo and only loners, exiles or other marginalized persons would have even considered such behaviour.
Regarding intelligence - there are different kinds of intelligence. Whatever form of intelligence Neanderthals exhibited, it may not have included the cognitive flexibility (able to look at a situation from different perspectives)or the social ties needed to support whatever crises they faced. I think of it this way - when the going gets tough, the most successful survivors are the ones with the social contacts & the mental dexterity to exploit those contacts to their best advantage.
See the report : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/07/980707073901.htm
Interbreeding? Sure!
I think it's been proven that very different species of animals (with very different chromosomal numbers) are capable of interbreeding in captivity (do a search for hybrid animals on wikipedia.org for some ideas). Saying 99.x% is not "close enough" doesn't prove anything.
Regarding humans and chimps, there's no published scientific evidence that a human/chimpanzee hybrid could or couldn't occur. No need for actual mating; this experiment could be performed fairly easily in a "test tube" environment. However there are too many ethical (science fiction) scenarios for anyone to publish such results.
Regarding DNA that's 10s of thousands of years old, it'll be tough to run such an experiment, at least with today's level of technology.
I think there's a reasonable chance that there are some vestiges of relatively recent neanderthal genes in some modern humans.
Humans and Neanderthals Interbred
Well, this theory in my estimation is much kinder than any I've read. With a brain larger than H. Sapians it seems odd that H. Neanderthalis would be at such a disadvantage. I think what likely happended was that H. Sapians, roughly the same or simular in size to the Neanderthals found them quite attractive. They likely interbred so much and evolved generally that no one could tell the difference anymore. Nor did they care as long as the children came out ok. As a species we have to get over certain preconcieved notions and myths. What we call Neanderthal man may just have been an indiginous tribe of humans who were like mountaineers - stong, beautiful and slightly different from H.Sapians.
This explains a lot. There
This explains a lot. There are some neanderthals among us. You know the ones with the thick foreheads and too thick arms. Men and women throwbacks to a more violent age when their brawn was more important than clear thinking.
DNA: What does it say?
Listen folks, I kinda want to think that the Neanderthals interbred with us and live on, in our genes. However the DNA alalysis, mitochondrial, and now a nuclear DNA study says we diverged hundreds of thousands of years ago. I hear a more extensive sequencing/comparison is underway. So far, assuming the evidence is being interpreted correctly, they know that if there was any inbreeding, it had to be very, very limited. Now even a very, very limited mixing could have significant and interesting implications... I'm not denying that. I'm just saying the evidence clearly shows it wasn't a big merging of species into one, like some want to think.
I also have physical traits approaching the neanderthal, but you can't deny a good DNA analysis, so I consider it convergent evolution.
I for one, can't wait for what more they find over the next 3-5 years!