Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture

2024/12/12 by Arev Pelin Sümer, Hélène Rougier, Vanessa Villalba‐Mouco +42 · 4 voices · 52 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Biology #Computational biology #Evolutionary biology #Forensic and Genetic Research #Gene #Genetics #Genome #Geography #Human genome #Neanderthal #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

paper · doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08420-x

published in Nature 638(8051), 711-717 (Nature Portfolio)

openalex publication_date 2024/12/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Abstract Modern humans arrived in Europe more than 45,000 years ago, overlapping at least 5,000 years with Neanderthals 1–4 . Limited genomic data from these early modern humans have shown that at least two genetically distinct groups inhabited Europe, represented by Zlatý kůň, Czechia 3 and Bacho Kiro, Bulgaria 2 . Here we deepen our understanding of early modern humans by analysing one high-coverage genome and five low-coverage genomes from approximately 45,000-year-old remains from Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany 4 , and a further high-coverage genome from Zlatý kůň. We show that distant familial relationships link the Ranis and Zlatý kůň individuals and that they were part of the same small, isolated population that represents the deepest known split from the Out-of-Africa lineage. Ranis genomes harbour Neanderthal segments that originate from a single admixture event shared with all non-Africans that we date to approximately 45,000–49,000 years ago. This implies that ancestors of all non-Africans sequenced so far resided in a common population at this time, and further suggests that modern human remains older than 50,000 years from outside Africa represent different non-African populations.

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• Reflections on the Human Genome Diversity Project: a conversation with Marcus W. Feldman, Henry T. Greely, and Mary-Claire King
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• Bone Adhered Sediments as a Source of Target and Environmental DNA and Proteins. [europepmc]
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• Highly selective cannibalism in the Late Pleistocene of Northern Europe reveals Neandertals were targeted prey. [europepmc]
• Association of Chromosome 3p21.32 Haplotype Blocks Introgressed from Neanderthals with Critical COVID-19 in a Spanish Cohort. [europepmc]
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• Pathways at the Iberian crossroads: Dynamic modeling of the middle-upper paleolithic transition. [europepmc]
• The Human Remains From the MIS 6 Site of Grotta Del Poggio (Cilento, Southern Italy): A Taxonomic and Chronological Reassessment. [europepmc]
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• Lithic Miniaturization Provides a Signature of an MIS4-3 Southern Dispersal of Homo sapiens. [europepmc]
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• Ancient Species Diversity and Niche Adaptation in Tannerella and Porphyromonas Revealed Through Pangenomics. [europepmc]
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• Tracing Neanderthal ancestry patterns through successive population expansions in Europe [europepmc]

Discussions

• (1-2) Publicação (papers): Sümer et al. (2024). Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s415... Iasi et al. (2024). Neanderthal ancestry thro [bsky, 6 points, 0 comments]
• 🚨 Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture Genomes of earliest H. #sapiens populations from Germany/Czechia show admixture with #Neanderthals ~ 49-45,000 years ago wit [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]
• 3 Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture doi.org/10.1038/s415... Genetic analysis of 45 ka humans pins down when Neanderthals and modern humans interbred to roughly 4 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]
• Fascinating. Research of ancient genome of Homo Sapiens in Europe is accelerating. Out of Africa migration should not be simplified. #nature #dna doi.org/10.1038/s415... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

Related

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• The date of interbreeding between Neandertals and modern humans
• The Date of Interbreeding between Neandertals and Modern Humans
• Recurrent gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans over the past 200,000 years