According to their research, they did not experience true extinction because their DNA still persists in the human genome. “Our results show that genetic interbreeding may have been a key mechanism for their disappearance. The extinction of the Neanderthals could thus be understood as the result of genetic dilution rather than as a true extinction.” report the authors of the research led by Andrea Amadeo from the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) lived in Europe and western Asia approximately 400,000 to 40,000 years ago. They were close relatives of the intelligent man (Homo sapiens), who left Africa 60,000 to 70,000 years ago and met them in Eurasia. The new model shows that long-term interbreeding of both species could have led to the complete genetic absorption of Neanderthals in as little as 10,000 years, but within 30,000 years at the latest. Most people outside of Africa today have 1 to 2% Neanderthal DNA, according to scientists.
The team used a mathematical model that simulated repeated arrivals of small groups of modern humans into Eurasia. The results suggest that the larger population of Homo sapiens could gradually genetically absorb the Neanderthals due to the continuous gene flow. “The steady flow of genes from a more numerous species could explain why Neanderthals were eventually genetically absorbed by modern humans,” the study says.
At the same time, scientists admit that climate change or conflicts over food and territory could also have played a role, but the fact that Neanderthal DNA lives on in us means, according to them, that it is not extinction in the true sense of the word. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports offers a new explanation for the gradual disappearance of Neanderthals, one of the key moments in human evolution.
