Ancient human migration into Europe revealed via genome analysis

[muriel_volestrangler]

Genetic sequencing of human remains dating back 45,000 years has revealed a previously unknown migration into Europe and showed intermixing with Neanderthals in that period was more common than previously thought.

The research is based on analysis of several ancient human remains – including a whole tooth and bone fragments – found in a cave in Bulgaria last year.

Genetic sequencing found the remains came from individuals who were more closely linked to present-day populations in east Asia and the Americas than populations in Europe.

“This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record,” the research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, said.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/07/ancient-human-migration-europe-neanderthals-genetic-sequencing

Full article:

Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry

Modern humans appeared in Europe by at least 45,000 years ago, but the extent of their interactions with Neanderthals, who disappeared by about 40,000 years ago6and their relationship to the broader expansion of modern humans outside Africa are poorly understood. Here we present genome-wide data from three individuals dated to between 45,930 and 42,580 years ago from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria. They are the earliest Late Pleistocene modern humans known to have been recovered in Europe so far, and were found in association with an Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefact assemblage. Unlike two previously studied individuals of similar ages from Romania and Siberia who did not contribute detectably to later populations, these individuals are more closely related to present-day and ancient populations in East Asia and the Americas than to later west Eurasian populations. This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record, and provides evidence that there was at least some continuity between the earliest modern humans in Europe and later people in Eurasia. Moreover, we find that all three individuals had Neanderthal ancestors a few generations back in their family history, confirming that the first European modern humans mixed with Neanderthals and suggesting that such mixing could have been common.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03335-3

[Bayard]

1. Clan Of The Cave Bear

In real life.

[Warpy]

2. It makes a great deal of sense

Late Neanderthal populations were showing damage from inbreeding and modern human populations were small and at risk of the same problem. Interbreeding gave both populations a new lease on life, but the Neanderthals were largely absorbed and went extinct as a separate species.

Given the prevalence of Neanderthal genes in humans outside Africa, I'd say it was very common, and likely the hybrids had a survival edge over both original species in both Europe and Asia.