Genome reveals how a small group burst out of Africa

DNA from European fossils dating back 45,000 years offers new clues to how our species spread across the world

- CARL ZIMMER

SOME 45,000 YEARS ago, a tiny group of people—fewer than 1,000, all told—wandered the icy northern fringes of Europe. Across thousands of miles of tundra, they hunted woolly rhinoceros and other big game. Their skin was most likely dark. To keep warm in the bone-chilling temperatures, they probably wore the hides and furs of the animals they killed.

These hardy people of the Ice Age, known as the LRJ culture, left behind distinctive stone tools and their own remains in caves scattered across Europe. On Thursday, researchers revealed the genomes of seven LRJ individuals from fossilized bones found in Germany and the Czech Republic—the oldest genetic specimens of modern humans yet found.