Paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak, who co-led the new study, said: 'How can we imagine populations that lived for 50 millennia in isolation while they are only two weeks' walk from each other? All processes need to be rethought.'
Researchers used Thorin's remains to analyze his genome, revealing that he was part of a previously unknown lineage of Neanderthals isolated for 50,000 years.
The discovery of Thorin complicates the story of modern human evolution and raises new questions about when and why Neanderthals disappeared.
Slimak and his team performed three sequential DNA extractions on the root of one of Thorin's molars to generate a whole-genome sequence.
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