Neanderthal father and daughter. (Credit: Tom Bjorklund)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Being a social butterfly is key to survival for modern humans — a new study finds that Neanderthals lacked this trait, which may have led to their extinction 40,000 years ago. It turned out to be high. New genetic evidence taken from caves in France reveals that Neanderthals were more reclusive, preferring to interact only with each other. Homo sapiens (modern humans), on the other hand, were more likely to connect and exchange ideas with other groups, which was an evolutionary advantage for survival.
Archaeologists have debated why Neanderthals died out. A new study published in the journal Cell Genomics supports the growing theory that Neanderthals’ extinction was due to their antisocial lifestyle rather than environmental changes or disease. There is.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while. But we need further evidence, and this is some of the evidence we were looking for, that their isolated lifestyle is the cause of “We needed this to find out how likely this hypothesis was that it went extinct in the early 1990s,” says Tarshika Vimala, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen. , in a media release.
Researchers have discovered a male Neanderthal tooth in a cave in southern France, providing a rare opportunity to study preserved genes left behind in the sample. Uncovering Neanderthal genetic information has always been a challenge. Although Neanderthal remains have been discovered across Eurasia, not enough DNA has been obtained for genetic analysis. One of the oldest Neanderthal DNA samples dates back 120,000 years and was collected from the Altai Mountains in Belgium, Germany.
The authors took these new DNA samples to examine the Neanderthal nuclear genome. The nuclear genome is the DNA at the center of cells, and this information could be compared to the genomes of other Neanderthals to learn more about their ancient lifestyle.
“This study supports the idea that Neanderthal social organization was different from that of early modern humans, who may have been more connected,” the researchers say. (Photo: Xavier Muth)
A “new” Neanderthal genome from around 50,000 years ago has been isolated. Additionally, this is only the fifth sample to come from Western Europe, showing how isolated this particular Neanderthal group was.
“The newly discovered Neanderthal genome comes from a different lineage than other late Neanderthals studied previously,” said Martin Sikora, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. “This supports the idea that Neanderthals’ social organization was different from that of early modern humans, who may have been more connected.”
A surprising observation researchers made when analyzing the genetic remains of Neanderthal men was that there was not much genetic diversity, suggesting that these people preferred inbreeding. .
“They have lived in small groups for generations. We know that inbreeding reduces genetic diversity within a population and can negatively impact viability if it occurs over a long period of time. We know,” Sikora explains.
Neanderthals’ low genetic diversity stands in contrast to early modern humans. This suggests that early modern humans likely interacted with other human species, which gave them an evolutionary advantage for survival. According to the authors, connections with other groups increased genetic diversity and helped early modern humans exchange knowledge and ideas.
The researchers also examined the genome of another Neanderthal from France. This person has a different Neanderthal lineage of ancestry than those found in the cave. The different genomes of both Neanderthals suggest that these hominins remained alienated from other human species in Western Europe until their extinction.
Paper summary
methodology
Researchers have discovered the remains of a Neanderthal man called Thorin in a cave in southern France. They will use other scientific techniques to study this fossil, including DNA analysis, radiocarbon dating, and isotopic and proteomic analyzes to determine the fossil’s age, genetic lineage, and environmental conditions. I used different methods. By studying fossilized teeth and bones and comparing its DNA to other known Neanderthals, they were able to reconstruct Thorin’s genetic history. They also used advanced scanning techniques to create virtual models of fossil remains. The goal was to learn more about this Neanderthal man and understand how isolated his group was from other people.
Main results
The study revealed that Thorin belonged to a group of Neanderthals that had been genetically isolated for about 50,000 years. This means that his group did not mix with other Neanderthal groups in Europe. The researchers also found that Thorin’s group had very small numbers of individuals, which led to inbreeding. Thorin’s DNA is different from other late Neanderthals, suggesting that his population was separated from other Neanderthal populations for a long time. This isolation may have influenced why Neanderthals ultimately became extinct.
Research limitations
The researchers acknowledge that their findings are based on a single Neanderthal genome, which may not be completely representative of the entire population. Furthermore, there is a degree of uncertainty in some of the dating methods used, meaning that the exact age of the fossil remains an estimate. Another limitation is that the fossils were still being excavated at the time of the study. This may lead to further discoveries that may slightly change the conclusions. Finally, because Neanderthal fossils are rare, there is not enough genetic data to conclusively conclude the extent of genetic isolation they observed.
Discussion and key points
This study challenges the previous idea that European Neanderthals were part of one large, interconnected population. Instead, evidence suggests that at least some Neanderthals, like Thorin, lived in small, isolated groups without much interaction with other people. This isolation made these populations even more vulnerable and may have led to their extinction. Furthermore, the discovery that Thorin’s group had no interaction with early humans suggests that Neanderthals were less socially or genetically connected than once thought, and that this may have been the case while humans flourished. may explain why they disappeared.
Funding and disclosure
This research was supported by various institutions, including the Lundbeck Foundation, the Danish National Research Foundation, and the European Research Council. Additionally, various universities and scientific institutions in France, Denmark and Australia contributed to the research. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest or financial interest with respect to this research.
