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We tend to think of Neanderthals as a species that went extinct, but a Princeton geneticist found evidence of three waves of interbreeding over 250,000 years, leading him to argue Neanderthals didn't
Space Daily • • science
Key Points:
- Geneticist Joshua Akey and his team found evidence that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred repeatedly over approximately 250,000 years, challenging the idea that Neanderthals simply went extinct around 40,000 years ago.
- Their research identified at least three distinct waves of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, occurring roughly 200,000-250,000, 120,000, and 50,000-60,000 years ago.
- Akey’s team also detected modern human DNA within Neanderthal genomes, indicating gene flow occurred in both directions, a finding missed by earlier studies focusing only on Neanderthal DNA in modern humans.
- Based on these findings, Akey argues that Neanderthals were not wiped out but rather absorbed into the growing modern human population, with their genetic legacy continuing in present-day humans.
- This research reframes human-Neanderthal interactions as a complex, repeated process of mixing rather than a single replacement event, although some details remain unsettled and subject to further investigation.
