A new study carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists, including experts from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), has advanced by 50,000 years the first known hybridization between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. This first encounter would have occurred more than 100,000 years ago in the Middle East , according to the work published in the journal Nature .
The researchers studied the complete genomes of a Denisovan from Siberia and a Neanderthal and the sequence of chromosome 21 of a Neanderthal from the Asturian cave of El Sidrón (Spain) and another from Vindija (Croatia).
DNA comparison revealed that not only modern non-African humans carry 2% of Neanderthal genetic sequences, but modern humans also contributed genes to Neanderthal populations , modifying our evolution, showing that Sapiens and Neanderthals hybridized at least on two different occasions in our past: 100,000 years ago and 50,000 years ago.
For experts, this discovery has an important implication in our evolutionary model confirmed by the recent evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens in China about 120,000 years ago or the stone tools discovered in southern Arabia. Both findings now coincide with the explanation that the sapiens left their genetic mark on the Neanderthals who migrated to the east of the planet.
