Neanderthals 'mated with modern humans'

[Freedom]

I was searching through the bbc archives and found this..

Wednesday, 21 April, 1999, 07:42 GMT 08:42 UK

Neanderthals 'mated with modern humans'

A hybrid skeleton showing features of both Neanderthal and early modern humans has been discovered, challenging the theory that our ancestors drove Neanderthals to extinction.

The skeleton of a young boy was found in Portugal.

Scientists say it shows for the first time that Neanderthals, who became extinct tens of thousands of years ago, mated with early members of our own species.

The scientists believe that the offspring of the interbreeding could be ancestors of modern man.

"This skeleton, which has some characteristics of Neanderthals and others of early modern humans, demonstrates that early modern humans and Neanderthals are not all that different. They intermixed, interbred and produced offspring," said Erik Trinkaus of Washington University.

But Joao Zilhao of the Portuguese Archaeological Institute said more research was needed to back up the controversial theory.

And Dr Robert Foley of Cambridge University told the BBC: "The fossil evidence as we currently understand it doesn't show the signs of hybrids between Neanderthals and modern humans, so it would be a novel and unusual find."

Child skeleton found in rabbit hole

The skeleton, thought to be that of a four-year-old boy, was found when an archaeologist explored a rabbit hole near the coast north of Lisbon.

The child had been given a ritual burial, with red ochre and pierced shells.

He had the pronounced chin and teeth of modern humans, but his sturdy limbs were more characteristic of the Neanderthals.

The Neanderthals were a powerfully-built species who evolved to cope with the challenging climate of Ice Age Europe.

While their brains were bigger than our own, Neanderthals never developed the sophisticated culture and technology that became the hallmark of their modern human contemporaries.

'Out of Africa' theory challenged

Most anthropologists believe that modern humans evolved in Africa by about 100,000 years ago. They eventually spread across the world - the so-called "Out of Africa" theory.

By 20,000 years ago, the Neanderthals were extinct. But it was not known whether modern humans destroyed them, or whether their distinctive characteristics disappeared through interbreeding.

Dr Trinkaus says the Portuguese skeleton provides powerful evidence for the interbreeding theory.

"This find refutes strict replacement models of modern human origins - that early modern humans all emerged from Africa and wiped out the Neanderthal population," said Dr Trinkaus.

The scientists believe that raises the possibility that people alive today could have some genes inherited from Neanderthal ancestors.

"A major contribution"

Chris Stringer, an expert on Neanderthal man at the Museum of Natural History in London, said he expected the find to make a "major contribution" to the debate on how the Neanderthals died out.

The hybridisation theory has been difficult to prove because only fragments of skeletons have previously been found, Dr Stringer said.

"The Iberian peninsula is an area where there was a significant overlap in time and space between Neanderthal and modern man. They could have coexisted for as long as 10,000 years," he said.
Source

What do you think?

[Agrippa]

Lets wait, we'll see if thats really a hybrid since many people spoke about "hybrids" in the past. Furthermore single hybrids are one thing, fertile offspring if this hybrids another and survival of (classical!) Neandertal genes even something completely different.

[Rusalka]

The article is from 1999, already 6 years old. I would expect this to have been more thoroughly researched by now and answers to have been come up with. Any ideas? Related news? I don't remember reading anything about the Neanderthals lately though I have read about the co-existence of the "hobbit race" in Southeast Asia quite recently in National Geographic. Besides that, Out of Africa theory is challenged still, with or without the Neanderthal theory; the pre-historic humanoid settlements in Georgia (around Mt. Kazbek) date very far back, for example; much further back than assumed before.

[Agrippa]

Originally Posted by Rusalka

The article is from 1999, already 6 years old. I would expect this to have been more thoroughly researched by now and answers to have been come up with. Any ideas? Related news? I don't remember reading anything about the Neanderthals lately though I have read about the co-existence of the "hobbit race" in Southeast Asia quite recently in National Geographic. Besides that, Out of Africa theory is challenged still, with or without the Neanderthal theory; the pre-historic humanoid settlements in Georgia (around Mt. Kazbek) date very far back, for example; much further back than assumed before.

I should always look at the date of such a message first

Well, Trinkaus is known for his ideas about Neandertals anyway...like Wolpoff and the others of that "school".

[Rusalka]

I opened a thread about the Georgian site I had mentioned.

Dmanisi: http://forum.stirpes.net/showthread....1035#post41035

[Menydh]

That's old news, and until today no DNA from the Neanderthals has been found in modern humans.

And agreed with Agrippa in that even if a number of Neanderthals interbred with Sapiens Sapiens, the offspring would most likely be rendered non fertile.

Another suggestion was that readhead was inherited from the Neanderthals. It seems that the comments of one scientist were missinterpreted by a journalist, and the myth was born.