An image of a Neanderthal and human family. Photo source: University of Israel.
The discovery concerns a 140,000-year-old girl, opening a new chapter in the story and evolution of humanity.
New research shows that Neanderthals may have interbred with our ancestors 100,000 years earlier than previously believed, according to a study published in the journal l’Anthropologie.
Researchers discovered that one parent of a five-year-old child who lived 140,000 years ago was a Neanderthal, while the other was a Homo sapiens. The child’s remains, likely a girl, were excavated 90 years ago from the Skhul Cave on Mount Carmel in present-day northern Israel.
A team from Tel Aviv University and the French National Center for Scientific Research conducted advanced analyses on the bones, including CT scans of the skull.
“Genetic studies over the past decade have shown that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens exchanged genes. Even today, 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals disappeared, 2–6% of our genome is of Neanderthal origin. Until now, we believed these genetic exchanges occurred between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. Here, we have a find that is 140,000 years old,” said Professor Israel Hershkovitz, head of the research team.
The Findings
According to the study, the child’s skull resembles that of Homo sapiens in overall shape, particularly in the curvature of the cranial vault, but also displays Neanderthal traits such as the cranial vascular system, the lower jaw, and the inner ear structure.
This discovery makes the fossil the oldest known specimen in the world showing features of both species. Hershkovitz’s previous research had shown that Neanderthals inhabited the region of present-day Israel as far back as 400,000 years ago. The new findings suggest they encountered early humans who began leaving Africa around 200,000 years ago.
The type of human, which researchers call Homo Nesher Ramla after the archaeological site, appears to be the result of interbreeding between the two populations. The child represents the oldest evidence of social and biological connections between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
It is believed that local Neanderthals eventually disappeared as they were absorbed into Homo sapiens populations. A similar process may have occurred later with European Neanderthals, although other theories suggest their extinction resulted from competition with humans or from climate changes they could not adapt to.
“The fossil we studied is the oldest physical evidence of mating between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,” emphasized Hershkovitz. In comparison, a 1998 discovery in Portugal—the so-called “Lapedo Child”—also showed traits of both groups, but it dates only to 28,000 years ago, more than 100,000 years after the Skhul child.
Analyses show that the child had a cranial curvature similar to Homo sapiens, while the lower jaw, spine, and pelvis exhibited Neanderthal features. Paleoanthropologist Anne Dambricourt-Malassé explained that the girl had “a strong neck, slightly taller than Homo sapiens, a less protruding forehead, and slight prognathism below the nose.” In other words, her skeleton reveals what hybrids between humans and Neanderthals may have looked like, combining features from both species.
