Advanced analyses, including CT scans of remaining skull bones, identified a five-year-old child from Skhul Cave with mixed Homo sapiens and Neanderthal anatomical features. The skull combines an overall Homo sapiens shape with intracranial blood supply, a lower jaw, and inner ear structures typical of Neanderthals. The fossil dates to 140,000 years ago, making it the earliest known human specimen to display both sets of traits. Genetic evidence indicates two to six percent of modern human genomes derive from Neanderthals, and this find pushes back the timing of interbreeding. Related evidence places Neanderthals in the region as far back as 400,000 years and early modern humans leaving Africa around 200,000 years ago.
'Genetic studies over the past decade have shown that these two groups exchanged genes,' said lead author Professor Israel Hershkovitz. 'Even today, 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals disappeared, part of our genome-two to six per cent-is of Neanderthal origin. 'But these gene exchanges took place much later, between 60,000 to 40,000 years ago. Here, we are dealing with a human fossil that is 140,000 years old.
'In our study, we show that the child's skull, which in its overall shape resembles that of Homo sapiens-especially in the curvature of the skull vault-has an intracranial blood supply system, a lower jaw, and an inner ear structure typical of Neanderthals' The finding makes the remains the earliest human fossil in the world to display features of both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, the team say.
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