A new study has confirmed through statistical and genomic analysis that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of Eurasians.
Published in the journal Genetics, the study shows that humans migrated out of Africa and then interbred with Neanderthals around Eurasia, rather than interbreeding in select pockets within Africa before migration.
In order to test both hypotheses, the researchers divided the genome into small blocks of equal length in order to infer genealogy, and determine with a high degree of certainty when interbreeding occurred.
Study co-author Konrad Lohse, a population geneticist at the University of Edinburgh, said
“Our approach can distinguish between two subtly different scenarios that could explain the genetic similarities shared by Neandertals and modern humans from Europe and Asia”
Confirming that Neanderthal interbred with human ancestors as they migrated into Eurasia brings into question the idea that human ancestors simply out-competed other hominids for resources to become the dominant species, as it is likely that some Neanderthals lived within human populations, making the intertwined evolution of the species even more complex.
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After all, what is the difference between the life that is in a cell, a chimp, a neanderthal or a modern homo sapiens? Do not come and vanishes in the same way, in one breath alone? Isn’t life a single indivisible movement, an information flow that builds up and changes from a common ancestor? So, is the species concept only a weak convention that will disappear with time too, an ephemeral spark? Or perhaps is there a unique quality in the tree of life, a qualitative leap detached from all evolutionary processes and unrelated to the rest of life? Is it the same leap that the human language makes when differentiating between life and the rest of the universe? Also between human beings and the rest of animals, food and eaters, health and disease, between life and death itself? Along these lines, a book recommendation, a preview in http://goo.gl/rfVqw6 Just another mind leisure suggestion, far away from dogmas or axioms.