Human–Neanderthal Interbreeding: Child’s Fossil Dates Back 140,000 Years

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — The discovery of the fossilised skull of a five-year-old child in Israel has revealed new evidence of interbreeding between modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals.

The find indicates that the two species interbred much earlier than previously thought. Researchers estimate that this interbreeding took place more than 100,000 years earlier than the earliest evidence known until now.

The child’s skull was discovered 90 years ago in Skhul Cave on Mount Carmel. It is the oldest human fossil identified as having characteristics of both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

The research provides evidence that the ancestors of modern humans migrated from Africa much earlier than previously believed. It also suggests that Homo sapiens migrated in several waves over hundreds of thousands of years, rather than in a single episode.

A 2024 study found that traces of Neanderthal DNA in Homo sapiens date only to the past 50,000 years. This means that the group involved in the interbreeding represented by the Skhul child was not ancestral to the populations that spread throughout the world.

“To this day, 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals became extinct, between 2 and 6 per cent of our genome comes from Neanderthals. But this exchange happened much later, between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. This fossil is 140,000 years old,” said Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University.

The child is thought to have had parents from the two species because the fossil displays a distinctive combination of traits. Its skull is rounded like that of modern humans, while its jaw and ear structure resemble those of Neanderthals.

Neanderthals were hominins that evolved in Europe. They were believed to have migrated to the area now known as Israel around 70,000 years ago.

However, Hershkovitz’s team found that Neanderthals had lived in Israel much earlier, dating back to 400,000 years ago. They encountered Homo sapiens around 200,000 years ago at the archaeological site of Nesher Ramla, where the two groups reproduced.

This is not the first discovery of a child born to parents from the two groups. A child’s fossil found in Portugal in 1998 was dated to around 28,000 years ago, making it about 100,000 years younger than the child from Skhul Cave.