Archeologists Discover the Neanderthal Legacy

For the very first time, researchers’ has conducted a study based on the genome from a 52,000-year-old female Neanderthal. The study took place at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. The research was done under the supervision of the institute’s researchers. As per the researchers, there is a link between early human ancestors and their now extinct Neanderthal cousins.

Not all the early human ancestors and their now extinct Neanderthal cousins are spotted throughout modern human genomes. Two studies have been conducted till now to understand the Neanderthal paramours. The second study shows that a near-complete genome of such high quality has been reconstructed from DNA fragments extracted from millennia-old fossils.

The researchers added that this is the first form of a Neanderthal who lived closer to the center of their known geographic range, which extended from the tip of southern Spain, across central Europe and the Middle East, and into Siberia.

The researchers recognized 15 Neanderthal forms that were strongly linked with relatable characteristics in modern humans. Over half of these were associated with skin and hair color or ease of tanning.

By: Priyanka Negi

Content: cosmosmagazine.com