Human-Neanderthal Hybrid Child Lived Only 5 Years, Scientists Discover
Scientists have discovered new evidence that alters our understanding of human evolutionary history. An analysis of a child’s skull fossil found in Israel indicates that modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals interbred approximately 140,000 years ago, much earlier than previous estimates.
This discovery is considered significant as it serves as the oldest evidence so far regarding the crossbreeding between two ancient human species. The fossil studied is the skull of a child aged about five years, found in the Skhul Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, and analysed by a research team from Tel Aviv University and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.
Researchers stated that the child’s skull fossil, discovered about 90 years ago in the Skhul Cave, is the oldest human fossil possessing combined characteristics of both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The finding strengthens various previous studies regarding the existence of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals.
The results from the Tel Aviv and French research teams also suggest that the migration of modern human ancestors out of Africa likely occurred much earlier than previously estimated. Furthermore, it is suspected that the migration of Homo sapiens occurred in several waves over hundreds of thousands of years, rather than a single large-scale movement.
In a study published in 2024, Neanderthal DNA traces were previously only found in Homo sapiens living within the last 50,000 years. This means that the group of Homo sapiens who interbred and produced the child fossil in the Skhul Cave were not the direct ancestors of modern humans who later spread across the globe.
“Genetic studies in the last decade have shown that both groups exchanged genes,” said Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University. “Until today, 40,000 years after the Neanderthals went extinct, part of our genome, 2 to 6 per cent, originates from Neanderthals. However, this exchange happened much later, between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. This fossil is 140,000 years old,” he continued.
Researchers concluded that the fossil is the offspring of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens parents because it possesses a unique combination of features: a rounded skull shape resembling modern humans, but a jaw and ear structure more similar to Neanderthals.
As background, Neanderthals were a hominin species that evolved in Europe. Previously, they were thought to have only migrated to the region that is now Israel around 70,000 years ago. However, Hershkovitz and his team found evidence that Neanderthals had inhabited the area since approximately 400,000 years ago.
The two species are then believed to have met at the Nesher Ramla archaeological site in Israel around 200,000 years ago, with some individuals subsequently breeding with the other species.
“The fossil we studied is the earliest evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,” said Hershkovitz.
Previously, a child fossil resulting from the interbreeding of modern humans and Neanderthals was also discovered in Portugal in 1998. The skull, known as the “Lapedo Valley child,” is estimated to be about 28,000 years old, making it approximately 100,000 years younger than the child fossil from the Skhul Cave.