{"id":379349,"date":"2025-11-14T22:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379349\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T22:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:51:12","slug":"neanderthals-disappearance-may-not-have-been-from-extinction-controversial-new-study-argues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379349\/","title":{"rendered":"Neanderthals\u2019 Disappearance May Not Have Been from Extinction, Controversial New Study Argues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disappearance of the Neanderthals\u2014our archaic hominin cousins<\/a>\u2014remains one of the great unresolved riddles of ancient human history. Now, new research puts forward an intriguing theory: they may not have truly gone extinct.<\/p>\n

At least not in the conventional sense of extinction, according to a paper published in Scientific Reports that argues the Neanderthals<\/a> may have instead simply interbred with humans<\/a> until they were essentially \u201cabsorbed\u201d over long periods, as evidenced by new mathematical modeling.<\/p>\n

The Mysterious Disappearance of the Neanderthals<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe disappearance of Neanderthals remains a subject of intense debate, with competing hypotheses attributing their demise to demographic decline, environmental change, competition with\u00a0Homo sapiens, or genetic assimilation,\u201d write authors Andrea Amadei, Giulia Lin, and Simone Fattorini in a new paper.<\/p>\n

The team relied on a unique mathematical model that allowed them to show how small waves of ancient modern human immigration into populations of Neanderthals<\/a> led to recurrent interbreeding. The resulting gene-mixing, they argue, \u201ccould have led to almost complete genetic substitution over 10,000\u201330,000 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Computing Ancient Hominin Extinction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s model, which is based primarily on the theory of neutral species drift, holds that most evolutionary changes within a species are due to the random genetic \u201cdrift\u201d of mutational alleles\u2014forms of genes that arise due to mutations\u2014and are essentially neutral.<\/p>\n

Employing a computational model on this basis allowed the research team to overstep considerations involving selective advantage or unexpected catastrophes that, throughout Earth\u2019s ancient history, have also helped account for the sudden demise of species.<\/p>\n

Instead, the team\u2019s model \u201cshows that sustained gene flow from a demographically larger species could account for Neanderthals\u2019 genetic absorption into modern humans,\u201d while also providing a good match for what archaeological data has yielded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scenario aligns with growing evidence of interbreeding and genetic introgression through recurrent\u00a0H. sapiens\u00a0immigration waves,\u201d the researchers write, adding that their findings offer an explanation that aligns with researchers\u2019 past perspectives on the abundance of Neanderthal ancestry observed in modern European and Asian populations.<\/p>\n

Lingering Questions <\/strong><\/p>\n

Given the abundance of evidence from genetic analysis in recent years that points to mixing between Neanderthals and modern humans, researchers have increasingly moved toward the idea that this ancient human species\u2019 extinction was something more akin to an absorption, which occurred very gradually over time.<\/p>\n

In their new study, Amadei, Lin, and Fattorini concede that while their mathematical models lend support to this theory, there are still a few remaining questions about precisely what circumstances may have led to the decline of the Neanderthals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlthough other factors may have contributed to the decline of Neanderthals,\u201d the authors write, \u201cour results highlight genetic admixture as a possible key mechanism driving their disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, the team\u2019s new research lends additional weight to the factors involving genetic mixing between early modern humans and our Neanderthal kin and may have similar implications for conditions that impacted Denisovan populations before their disappearance during the late Pleistocene.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s paper<\/a>, \u201cA simple analytical model for Neanderthal disappearance due to genetic dilution by recurrent small-scale immigrations of modern humans,\u201d appeared in Scientific Reports on November 4, 2025.<\/p>\n

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>micah@thedebrief.org<\/strong><\/a>. Follow him on X\u00a0<\/strong>@MicahHanks<\/strong><\/a>, and at\u00a0<\/strong>micahhanks.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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