They claim that consanguinity was one of the main causes of the extinction of Neanderthals – 08/02/2019

The disappearance of the Neanderthals' face of the Earth, this intelligent and sophisticated species he lived in Europe for 300,000 years, it is one of the biggest mysteries of human evolution. Why did they disappear? Have not they been able to adapt to climate change? Was it because of the interaction with modern humans? The causes are probably multiple, but a group of Spanish researchers has found new evidence and claims that consanguinity, the union of persons of common descent, for example from the same family This could be a decisive factor.

The work, published in Scientific Reports, was carried out by paleoanthropologists, geneticists and archaeologists from the National Museum of Natural Science (MNCN-CSIC), the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) and the I & # 39; University of Oviedo, all Spanish. For research, the scientific team used the fossil remains of several individuals found in El Sidrón Cave, in Piloña (northern Spain), the most comprehensive Neanderthal site on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest in the world.

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Only between 2000 and 2013, more than 2,500 skeletal remains of at least 13 Neanderthals recovered from this site. they lived about 49,000 years ago and that were the key to the study.

The extinction of the Neanderthals can not be attributed to a single cause: "It was probably a combination of ecological and demographic factors that includes interaction with modern humans. More specifically, Neanderthals lived in small groups and geographically separated from each other. practically isolated. The result is that they started to intersect between members of the same family and, over time, furthermore, the group is further reduced and Inbreeding has increased. This consanguinity, maintained over time, could lead to a significant decrease in Neanderthal biological variability", points out Antonio Rosas, leader of the research.

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To badyze the degree of consanguinity in this group, scientists used four jaws, three jaws, a multitude of teeth, cranial fragments and different bones of the trunk and limbs, ie fossils of the entire skeleton. in which they detected up to 17 conbad anomalies. distributed throughout the body.

The badyzed bone remains belonged to a family group of thirteen individuals: seven adults (four women and three men), three adolescents, and three children sharing the same conbad anomalies in the nose, jaw, ribs, foot, and wrist.

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The conbad anomalies detected in the Neanderthal group of El Sidrón also correspond to genetic studies carried out in other European groups, such as those in the Vindija Cave or those in the Altai, both in Siberia. , where samples of the practice of consanguinity have also been found. and even consanguinity – in the case of Altai, that is to say that there was offspring between half-brothers.

In previous research, the skeletal remains of El Sidrón de Neandertal have also allowed us to know several aspects of the lifestyle of this prehistoric community, such as the distribution of work by bad, the use of medicinal plants or practice of cannibalism, among others.