Genomes find Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals about 49k to 43k years ago

It is difficult to know the nature of the interaction between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals based on genome data beyond being able to say they mixed and had children together. The researchers could not pinpoint geographically where this interbreeding occurred but saw the Middle East as likely.

- Reuters

WASHINGTON: Neanderthals went extinct roughly 39,000 years ago, but in some sense these close cousins of our species are not gone. Their legacy lives on in the genomes of most people on Earth, thanks to interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

New research is providing the most precise estimate to date of when this mixing occurred—with the height of the interaction around 47,000 years ago—and showing how Neanderthal components have shaped the human genome in functions such as skin pigmentation, immune response and metabolism.

One group of scientists examined genomes from three female and three male Homo sapiens individuals who lived around 45,000 years ago based on bones found in a cave at the German town of Ranis, and one genome from a woman from about the same time whose skull was found in a cave at Zlaty kun mountain in the Czech Republic.

The study, published in the journal Nature and involving the oldest Homo sapiens DNA ever sequenced, gave a date range for the mixing of about 49,000 to 45,000 years ago.

A second group of researchers examined the genomes of 300 present-day and ancient Homo sapiens individuals, including 59 who lived between 2,000 and 45,000 years ago. The study, published in the journal Science, gave a date range of the mixing of about 50,500 to 43,500 years ago.