Neanderthal skull and artistic depiction: inheritance of genes allowed humans to survive at higher latitudesJustin Tallis / AFP vía Getty Images
Between 2.5% and 3.7% of the Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) genome may have come from its sister species, the modern man (Homo sapiens), according to scientists from Southeast University in Nanjing, China, and Princeton University, USA. They examined the genomes of 2,000 modern humans and the only three preserved Neanderthal specimens, which are 52,000, 80,000, and 120,000 years old. The first and most significant encounter between the two species may have occurred earlier than previously thought — around 200,000 years ago — when groups of H. sapiens migrating from Africa arrived in Europe and had children with the Neanderthals, which have now been extinct for over 40,000 years. It has long been known that the ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals interbred and that Neanderthals gave us essential genes that enabled us to live at the highest latitudes of the planet. The gene flow from H. sapiens to Neanderthals, however, had not yet been measured. What is not known is why one lineage survived and the other did not, after having begun their own evolutionary paths some 500,000 years ago (LiveScience, July 11; Science and El País, July 12).
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