{"id":575697,"date":"2026-01-27T14:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=575697"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:34:58","slug":"a-human-skull-with-features-of-two-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/a-human-skull-with-features-of-two-species\/","title":{"rendered":"A human skull with features of two species"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) found a combination of Neanderthal and <em>Homo sapiens<\/em> traits in the skull of a 5-year-old child discovered about 90 years ago in the Skhul cave on Mount Carmel, Israel. At 140,000 years old, it is the oldest-known human fossil with characteristics of both groups, which are considered distinct species. It may be the earliest evidence that Neanderthals and <em>Homo sapiens<\/em> interacted biologically and socially in the region, even interbreeding. &#8220;The child\u2019s skull, which in its overall shape resembles that of <em>Homo sapiens<\/em>\u2014especially in the curvature of the skull vault\u2014has an intracranial blood supply system, a lower jaw, and an inner ear structure typical of Neanderthals,&#8221; wrote TAU anthropologist Israel Hershkovitz in a university statement. In 1998, the 28,000-year-old skeleton of a child with traits from both human groups was discovered in Portugal <em>(<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.anthro.2025.103385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anthropology<\/a><\/em>, July-August).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"140,000-year-old child\u2019s skull has traits of both modern humans and Neanderthals","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[202],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-575697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-archaeology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575699,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575697\/revisions\/575699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575697"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=575697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}