Early humans in Europe found to have close lineage with Neanderthals

Early humans were known to mix with their common relatives, stemming from different areas and periods, and that the research proves the notion to also to be true in parts of Europe.

By ZACHARY KEYSER
An exhibit shows the life of a neanderthal family in a cave in the new Neanderthal Museum in the northern town of Krapina February 25, 2010. (photo credit: NIKOLA SOLIC/REUTERS)
An exhibit shows the life of a neanderthal family in a cave in the new Neanderthal Museum in the northern town of Krapina February 25, 2010.
(photo credit: NIKOLA SOLIC/REUTERS)
Scientists have found that Homo sapiens have a more recent ancestry with Neanderthals than previously thought.
The research noted the analysis of two genome studies, published in the scientific journal Nature, on early European humans dating back over 45,000 years that showed evidence these early humans had mixed with Neanderthals and other extinct relatives, said Viviane Slon, who is a paleontologist at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel.
Slon notes that early humans were known to mix with their common relatives, stemming from different areas and periods, and that the research proves the notion to also to be true in parts of Europe.
“It’s different times, different places, and it happens again and again," Slon told Nature.
The early humans - found in caves in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic - examined by the studies existed in the Initial Upper Palaeolithic period. Before this period, there is no known existence of Homo sapiens DNA.
One study examines a tooth and fragmented remains of from the Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria, another looks at an almost complete skull found in the Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republic.
A 2015 study of a 40,000-year-old individual found in Romania found that he was the descendant of a Neanderthal ancestor that existed in its family tree around four to six generations before its existence.
Similar to the Romanian individual, these early Europeans carried Neanderthal DNA as well, showing that it was more common than previously thought for early humans to interbreed with Neanderthals in Europe.
Three individuals found in Bulgaria, dating between 45,900 and 42,600-years-old, were all found to have recent Neanderthal ancestors. The genomes of these individuals had around 3.4-3.8% Neanderthal DNA, compared to modern non-Africans who normally have around 2%.
The researchers believe that the Bulgarian individuals each had a Neanderthal ancestor around six or seven generations ago, within Europe and not in the Middle East and Eurasia as it is more commonly found.

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“We saw these huge chunks. It was completely amazing,” molecular biologist Mateja Hajdinjak from the Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said, noting the larger amounts of Neanderthal DNA in the early humans, according to Nature. “What are the chances of finding them again?”
Hajdinjak and evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo led the study. Both are of the MPI-EVA.
The woman found in the Czech Republic, however, is believed to have a Neanderthal ancestor within the past 70-80 generations, which would be around 2,000-3,000 years before, according to Johannes Krause, a palaeo-geneticist at the MPI–EVA who co-led the study.
Researchers were unable to precisely date the skull due to some form of "contamination," Nature said. However, they purport that the skull is over 45,000-years-old based solely on it's prevalence of Neanderthal ancestry.
“We do have, now, some of the oldest human genomes out there,” said Hajdinjak, according to Nature.
The research notes that these individuals are not related to later Europeans, which means that at some point in time their lineages disappeared from the area. They did, however, find that the remains found in Bulgaria shared a connection with East Asians and Native Americans, where Hajdinjak and her team purport the must have lived across Eurasia, but at some point disappeared from Europe and lived in Asia.


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