{"id":12805,"date":"2025-08-21T01:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T01:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12805\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T01:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T01:23:08","slug":"140000-year-old-fossil-shows-human-neanderthal-interbreeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12805\/","title":{"rendered":"140,000-year-old fossil shows human\u2013Neanderthal interbreeding"},"content":{"rendered":"

An international research team has identified the earliest fossil showing both Neanderthal and Homo sapiens traits. <\/p>\n

The skeleton, belonging to a five-year-old child found 90 years ago in Israel\u2019s Skhul Cave, dates back about 140,000 years. Researchers say the discovery is the first physical proof that the two groups interbred in the region far earlier than previously believed.<\/p>\n

Neanderthal and human traits<\/p>\n

The study was led by Prof. Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University and Anne Dambricourt-Malass\u00e9 of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Their team analyzed the child\u2019s skull and jaw with advanced micro-CT scans.<\/p>\n

The results showed a mix of features. The skull vault curved like that of Homo sapiens. But the intracranial blood supply system, lower jaw, and inner ear structure resembled Neanderthals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis discovery reveals the world\u2019s earliest known human fossil showing morphological traits of both of these human groups,\u201d the researchers said. They added that the skeleton is \u201cthe result of continuous genetic infiltration from the local\u2014and older\u2014Neanderthal population into the Homo sapiens population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Hershkovitz noted that modern genetic studies confirm Neanderthal DNA still exists in humans today. \u201cEven today, 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals disappeared, part of our genome\u20142 to 6 percent\u2014is of Neanderthal origin,\u201d he said. \u201cBut these gene exchanges took place much later, between 60,000 to 40,000 years ago. Here, we are dealing with a human fossil that is 140,000 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The skull of Skhul I child showing cranial curvature typical of Homo sapiens. Credit \u2013 Tel Aviv University<\/p>\n

Rethinking migration timelines<\/p>\n

For decades, scholars believed Neanderthals<\/a> evolved in Europe and reached Israel only around 70,000 years ago. But recent studies challenge that view.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Prof. Hershkovitz and colleagues described fossils from the Nesher Ramla site dating back 400,000 years. That suggested early Neanderthals lived in the region long before Homo sapiens<\/a> left Africa. The two groups encountered each other in the Levant about 200,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

The Skhul child provides the earliest direct fossil evidence of their interaction. \u201cThe fossil<\/a> we studied is the earliest known physical evidence of mating between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,\u201d said Hershkovitz. He compared the finding with the \u201cLapedo Valley Child\u201d found in Portugal in 1998, which also showed mixed traits but dated to only 28,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

The researchers carried out a detailed morphological analysis by creating 3D models of the skull and jaw. <\/p>\n

These scans also revealed non-visible structures like the inner ear. To map the blood vessel system around the brain, the team produced a full 3D reconstruction of the inside of the skull.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, fossils from the Skhul and nearby Qafzeh caves were classified as early Homo sapiens. The new study shows at least some of them resulted from genetic blending with local Neanderthals.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, the finding illustrates how ancient populations in the region did not exist in isolation but shaped one another through contact and interbreeding.<\/p>\n

The study is published in the journal l\u2019Anthropologie<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An international research team has identified the earliest fossil showing both Neanderthal and Homo sapiens traits. The skeleton,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[11212,12088,18,3292,11591,12089,19,12090,17,12091,10082,133,12092,12093],"class_list":{"0":"post-12805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ancient-dna","9":"tag-anthropology","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-homo-sapiens","12":"tag-human-evolution","13":"tag-hybrid-fossil","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-interbreeding","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-israel-archaeology","18":"tag-neanderthals","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-skhul-cave","21":"tag-tel-aviv-university"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}