Humans interbred with other hominin species, child aged about five
Humans interbred with other hominin species, child aged about five
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Interbreeding between human species, namely Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, has been revealed through the discovery of skull fossils in Israel. The interspecies mingling is believed to have occurred more than 100,000 years earlier than previously thought.
The skull of a child about five years old found in Israel was analysed by a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University and France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. The team announced the results as a major breakthrough for the field.
The finding provides the oldest evidence to date of interbreeding between humans and other hominin species.
Researchers state that the child’s skull discovered 90 years ago in Skhul Cave on Mount Carmel is the oldest human fossil to display Neanderthal and Homo sapiens characteristics. This is the latest from a series of reports on evidence of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals.
The Tel Aviv and French team’s research shows that the migration of early modern humans out of Africa occurred far earlier than previously estimated. Homo sapiens migrations also occurred in multiple waves over centuries, not as a single large event.
In a study published in 2024, traces of Neanderthal DNA have been found in the genomes of Homo sapiens living in the last 50,000 years. This means that the group of interbred Homo sapiens and the child fossil found at Skhul is not the ancestor of modern humans who spread across the world.
“Genetic studies in the last decade show that the two groups exchanged genes,” said Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University.
“To this day, 40,000 years after Neanderthals went extinct, a portion of our genome, 2 to 6 percent, derives from Neanderthals. However, this exchange occurred much later, between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. The fossil is about 140,000 years old.”
The researchers state the fossil is a descendant of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens parents because of its unique characteristics: a round skull like modern humans, with a jaw and ear structure similar to Neanderthals.
For information, Neanderthals are a hominin species that evolved in Europe and are thought to have migrated to regions now claimed by Israel around 70,000 years ago. However, Hershkovitz and his team have shown that Neanderthals were living in Israel as early as 400,000 years ago.
The two species then met at Nesher Ramla, an archaeological site in Israel, around 200,000 years ago. Some of them bred with other species.
“The fossils we studied are the earliest evidence of mating between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,” said Hershkovitz.
The discovery of a child resulting from the interbreeding of modern humans and Neanderthals was also found in Portugal in 1998. The skull named the “Lapedo Valley child” is about 28,000 years old, 100,000 years younger than the Skhul Cave child fossil.
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