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This has happened not only once, but many times in our evolutionary history.
To this day, the idea of Neanderthals as rash brutes has been completely refuted – they were just as intelligent, inventive and compassionate as humans. In fact, not only were they on an equal footing with humans, but they also crossed with them – many times.
Already, some studies have shown that about 2% of non-African human DNA is Neanderthal (with significant geographical variations), with several different analyzes yielding similar numbers. Now, a new study adds even more weight to the idea of a mixed lineage, but also gives it a new twist.
The study was essentially a large-scale genetic analysis of Europeans and contemporary Asians. As in previous studies, about 2% of their genomes include a Neanderthal component, but this figure was 12 to 20% higher in East Asian individuals than in Europeans. This variation may constitute a sort of navigation track, showing how human migration and mixing took place.
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A comparison of Neanderthal and modern human skulls from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
When humans left Africa, they met Neanderthals en route, especially in western Eurasia. These meetings resulted in crosses that left a distinct genetic signature.
"Although modern humans are currently around the world, less than 100,000 years ago, they were mostly confined to Africa," Fabrizio Mafessoni written in an accompanying notice. "At that time, their homosexual counterparts, Neanderthals and Denisovans, lived in western and eastern Eurasia, respectively. When anatomically modern human groups began to spread out of Africa, these populations met. Traces of these encounters can now be found in the genomes of the descendants of those humans who emigrated from Africa – their genome contains 2 to 6% of Neanderthal fragments and DNA. "
Comparison of human Neanderthal skulls and modern Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
While many anthropologists believed that there was only one episode of mixing, this new study strongly suggests the opposite. Fernando Villanea and Joshua Schraiber, the authors of the study, simulated the injection of Neanderthal DNA into the genomes of anatomically modern humans, and then used a machine learning algorithm to explore this model. They conclude that the genetic distribution they have seen is best explained by multiple episodes of crossbreeding between the Neanderthal and East Asian and European populations.
While this may not solve the debate, it adds to the idea of a complex story of human-Neanderthal interactions, specific to each site.
"Despite initial indications of a simple mixing history between man and Neanderthal, more detailed analyzes suggest that there may be new mixing episodes specific to a particular population, "concludes the study.
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