Did humans still interbreed with Neanderthals?
Evidence of hybridization of Neanderthals with humans is presentedDmitry Safin, Compulenta
When analyzing the genetic characteristics of people of different populations, an American scientist, led by Jeffrey Long from the University of New Mexico, managed to find traces of interspecific crossing.
Anthropologists examined data on 1,983 representatives of 99 populations in Africa, Europe, North and South America, Asia and Oceania. Scientists were interested in the so—called microsatellites - sections of DNA consisting of repeating fragments with a length of one to six base pairs. Microsatellites are characterized by a high rate of sequence change and are often used in determining kinship and belonging to a particular population.
The data obtained indicate the hybridization of humans with certain extinct species — for example, Homo neanderthalensis or H. heidelbergensis. "This means that Neanderthals have not completely disappeared," comments Mr. Long. "Almost every person retains a piece of Neanderthal."
Hybridization, according to scientists, took place about 60 thousand years ago in the eastern Mediterranean and about 45 thousand years ago in eastern Asia. All this happened after H. sapiens migrated from Africa, since no traces of crossing were found in the genomes of modern Africans. After the first crossing, H. sapiens had to populate Europe, Asia and North America, and the second case affected the genetic material of Oceania people.
The researchers hope for an early test of the hypothesis: it is expected that in the near future the Svante Paabo group from the Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology named after Max Planck (Germany) will publish the full results of the decoding of the Neanderthal genome.
The authors presented their work at the meeting of the American Association of Specialists in the Field of Physical Anthropology held in Albuquerque.
Prepared based on Nature News: Neanderthals may have interbred with humans.
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