A new fossil found in the Manot cave, north of Israel, specifically the upper part of a skull, has shown that both Neanderthals (who became extinct about 28,000 years ago) and sapiens coexisted as nomadic hunters, possibly for millennia. Although the fossil does not reveal conclusive data, it does reveal this cross between the two species and that even the discovered skull could belong to Sapiens-Neanderthal descent . The work has been published in the journal Nature .
Taking into account that approximately between 2% and 4% of the genes of modern Europeans come from these hominids , the importance of unraveling this unknown regarding when and where contacts between them and Homo Sapiens began to be made is vital. to really know where humans come from.
The skull in question belongs, according to the analysis of the experts, to an adult individual who lived 55,000 years ago in the territory that currently makes up Israel . Experts estimate that it contained a brain of about 1,100 cubic centimeters (the average in modern humans is 1,400 cubic centimeters).
Its shape is similar to that of other Upper Paleolithic skulls found in Africa and Europe but is different from most modern human skulls that have been discovered in the area of the Near East known as the Mediterranean Levant. “This suggests that the inhabitants of the Manot cave could be closely related to the first modern humans who later colonized Europe, ” explains Israel Hershkovitz, leader of the study.
Until now, no Neanderthal bones have been found since excavations began in this area in 2010. The Manot cave consists of an elongated main area, about 80 meters long and about 20 wide, and two chambers connected by the north and the South.
