Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia \u2014 The discovery of the fossilised skull of a\nfive-year-old child in Israel has revealed new evidence of interbreeding\nbetween modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals.<\/p>\n
The find indicates that the two species interbred much earlier than\npreviously thought. Researchers estimate that this interbreeding took\nplace more than 100,000 years earlier than the earliest evidence known\nuntil now.<\/p>\n
The child\u2019s skull was discovered 90 years ago in Skhul Cave on Mount\nCarmel. It is the oldest human fossil identified as having\ncharacteristics of both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.<\/p>\n
The research provides evidence that the ancestors of modern humans\nmigrated from Africa much earlier than previously believed. It also\nsuggests that Homo sapiens migrated in several waves over hundreds of\nthousands of years, rather than in a single episode.<\/p>\n
A 2024 study found that traces of Neanderthal DNA in Homo sapiens\ndate only to the past 50,000 years. This means that the group involved\nin the interbreeding represented by the Skhul child was not ancestral to\nthe populations that spread throughout the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo this day, 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals became\nextinct, between 2 and 6 per cent of our genome comes from Neanderthals.\nBut this exchange happened much later, between 60,000 and 40,000 years\nago. This fossil is 140,000 years old,\u201d said Israel Hershkovitz of Tel\nAviv University.<\/p>\n
The child is thought to have had parents from the two species because\nthe fossil displays a distinctive combination of traits. Its skull is\nrounded like that of modern humans, while its jaw and ear structure\nresemble those of Neanderthals.<\/p>\n
Neanderthals were hominins that evolved in Europe. They were believed\nto have migrated to the area now known as Israel around 70,000 years\nago.<\/p>\n
However, Hershkovitz\u2019s team found that Neanderthals had lived in\nIsrael much earlier, dating back to 400,000 years ago. They encountered\nHomo sapiens around 200,000 years ago at the archaeological site of\nNesher Ramla, where the two groups reproduced.<\/p>\n
This is not the first discovery of a child born to parents from the\ntwo groups. A child\u2019s fossil found in Portugal in 1998 was dated to\naround 28,000 years ago, making it about 100,000 years younger than the\nchild from Skhul Cave.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/human-neanderthal-interbreeding-childs-fossil-dates-back-140-000-years-1792831832", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }