{"id":374943,"date":"2025-11-13T02:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/374943\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T02:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:35:13","slug":"neanderthals-may-never-have-truly-gone-extinct-study-reveals-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/374943\/","title":{"rendered":"Neanderthals May Never Have Truly Gone Extinct, Study Reveals : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neanderthals<\/a> may have never truly gone extinct, according to new research \u2013 at least not in the genetic sense.<\/p>\n

A new mathematical model has explored a fascinating scenario in which Neanderthals gradually disappeared not through “true extinction” but through genetic absorption into a more prolific species:<\/p>\n

Us.<\/p>\n

According to the analysis, the long and drawn-out ‘love affair’<\/a> between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals could have led to almost complete genetic absorption within 10,000\u201330,000 years.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/b>Mysterious Twist Revealed in Saga of Human-Neanderthal Hybrid Child<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The model is simple and not regional, but it provides a “robust explanation for the observed Neanderthal<\/a> demise,” argue<\/a> computational chemist Andrea Amadei from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

Once, the idea that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred was a radical notion, and yet now, modern genome studies and archaeological evidence have provided strong evidence that our two lineages were hooking up and reproducing right across Eurasia<\/a> for tens of thousands of years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, people of non-African ancestry have inherited about 1 to 4 percent<\/a> of their DNA from Neanderthals.<\/p>\n

No one knows why Neanderthals disappeared from the face of our planet roughly 40,000 years ago<\/a>, but experts tend to agree that there are probably numerous factors that played a role, like environmental changes, loss of genetic diversity<\/a>, or competition with Homo sapiens.<\/p>\n

\"Neanderthals<\/p>\n

Amadei and co-authors \u2013 evolutionary geneticist Giulia Lin from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, and ecologist Simone Fattorini from the University of L’Aquila in Italy \u2013 present a model that does not rule out these other explanations.<\/p>\n

It does suggest that genetic drift played a strong role \u2013 even with the researchers assuming the Neanderthal genes our species ‘absorbed’ had no survival benefit.<\/p>\n

If the model were to include the potential advantages<\/a> of some Neanderthal genes to the larger Homo sapiens population, then mathematical support for genetic dilution may become even stronger.<\/p>\n

Like all models, this new one is based on imperfect assumptions. It uses the birth rates of modern hunter-gatherer tribes to predict how quickly small Neanderthal tribes<\/a> would be engulfed by a much larger human population, given how frequently it seems we were interbreeding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"NeanderthalsA map of western Eurasia showing when and where fossil evidence suggests that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens coexisted. (Steven E. Churchill, Kamryn Keys, Ann H. Ross\/Wikimedia Commons\/CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The results are consistent with recent archaeological discoveries and align with a body of evidence<\/a> that suggests the decline of Neanderthals in Europe was gradual rather than sudden.<\/p>\n

Homo sapiens seem to have started migrating out of Africa<\/a> much earlier than scientists previously thought, and they arrived in Europe in several influxes, possibly starting more than 200,000 years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As each wave of migration came crashing into the region, it engulfed local Neanderthal communities, diluting their genes, like sand pulled into the sea.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeThree waves of Homo sapiens migration out of Africa and into Europe based on tool evidence. (Slimak, PLOS One, 2023<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Today, some scientists argue that there is more to unite Homo sapiens and Neanderthals than there is to differentiate us. Our lineages, they say, should not be regarded<\/a> as two separate species, but rather<\/a> as distinct populations belonging to a “common human species.”.<\/p>\n

Neanderthals were surprisingly adaptable<\/a> and intelligent<\/a>. They made intricate tools<\/a>, created cave art<\/a>, and used fire<\/a> \u2013 and when it came to communication, they were probably capable of far more than simple grunting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neanderthal populations and cultures may no longer exist, but their genetic legacy lives on inside of us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are not just our cousins; they are also our ancestors.<\/p>\n

The study was published in Scientific Reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neanderthals may have never truly gone extinct, according to new research \u2013 at least not in the genetic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":374944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[352,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-374943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-msft-content","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115540062110993895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}