A team of international scientists has analysed the DNA of 36,000-year-old Russian man. Photo: Supplied <\/p>\n
A genome taken from a 36,000-year-old skeleton has helped scientists shed new light on interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals. <\/p>\n
The ground-breaking study of DNA recovered from a fossil of one of the earliest known Europeans - a man who lived in western Russia - shows that the genetics of the earliest inhabitants of the continent survived the last ice age, helping form the basis of the modern-day population. <\/p>\n
Known as the Kostenki genome, the DNA also contained evidence the man shared, as with all people of Eurasia today, a small percentage of Neanderthal genes, confirming previous findings which show a period when Neanderthals and the first humans to leave Africa for Europe briefly interbred. <\/p>\n
This means that, even today, anyone with a Eurasian ancestry - from Chinese to Scandinavian and North American - has a small element of Neanderthal DNA. <\/p>\n
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But despite Western Eurasians going on to share the European landmass with Neanderthals for another 10,000 years, no further periods of interbreeding occurred, the study said. <\/p>\n
Robert Foley, a University of Cambridge professor, questioned whether Neanderthal populations were quickly dwindling and whether modern humans still encountered them. <\/p>\n
\"We were originally surprised to discover there had been interbreeding,\" Foley said. <\/p>\n
\"Now the question is, why so little? <\/p>\n
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Visit link: A team of international scientists has analysed the DNA of 36,000-year-old Russian man. Photo: Supplied A genome taken from a 36,000-year-old skeleton has helped scientists shed new light on interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals. The ground-breaking study of DNA recovered from a fossil of one of the earliest known Europeans - a man who lived in western Russia - shows that the genetics of the earliest inhabitants of the continent survived the last ice age, helping form the basis of the modern-day population Continue reading
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