Neanderthals, Not Humans, May Have Made Cave Art in Spain
Neanderthal genes are alive and well in people of European descent. That is a well-known fact. The timeline of events is what's still being figured out.
Scientists believe that Neanderthals and Denisovans diverged from a common ancestor more than 390,000 years ago. They inhabited Eurasia until they were replaced by modern humans around 40,000 years ago — and they tended to mate with anatomically modern humans as well.
About 90,000 years ago, a young girl lived in the Altai Mountains, a remote range located in what is now Russia. She died when she was only 13 years old, and her bones were piled up in a cave. Those bones revealed she was the child of an unconventional couple: two now-extinct hominins, a Neanderthal and a Denisovan.
“We knew from previous research that Neanderthals and Denisovans, who were two genetically distinct groups of ancient hominins, occasionally mixed with each other,” Slon tells Inverse. “But to actually find an offspring of such mixing — that was completely unexpected.”
Return to Technology and Gadgets
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest