LEIPZIG, Germany, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Scientists have reconstructed the oldest known human genome after finding the bones of a 45,000-year-old man in Siberia. <\/p>\n
The findings allowed scientists to further confirm that early humans and Neanderthals mixed and had children, said the researchers of the study published in Nature. <\/p>\n
\"What's exciting about this paper is that it's looking at a very ancient modern human who would have lived around the same time as Neanderthals,\" said Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not on the research team. <\/p>\n
The bone and genetic sequence showed the man had both human and Neanderthal genes. <\/p>\n
The one mystery that remains is what happened after the two interbred. Humans survived and Neanderthals died out but scientists still don't understand why. <\/p>\n
The study also alludes to humans leaving Africa 60,000 years ago, much later than previously thought. <\/p>\n
\"We have caught evolution red handed!\" said Svante Pbo, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and lead on the study. <\/p>\n
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