(ORDO NEWS) — Employees of the London Museum of Natural History put forward their hypothesis of the extinction of the Neanderthals.
Previously, many believed that Neanderthals became extinct due to wars with Homo sapiens. But London-based experts believe that Neanderthals mated more often with Homo sapiens than with each other.
According to experts, Neanderthal genes make up about 2% of the genome of all modern inhabitants of the planet who do not originate from the African continent.
To date, only 32 genomes of Neanderthals, who lived 40-60 thousand years ago, have been deciphered, while the presence of Homo sapiens DNA has not been found in them.
Experts suggest that Neanderthals joined Homo sapiens groups, making their genetic contribution to the genome of our ancestors.
About 600,000 years ago, the lines of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens began to diverge. Since that time, these two species have evolved separately, and in very different regions of the planet – in Eurasia and Africa.
Today, archaeologists find the remains of Neanderthals throughout Europe and Asia, right up to southern Siberia. This indicates good adaptation to cold climates.
Approximately 60,000 years ago, our ancestors began to leave the African continent en masse, which resulted in close acquaintance with the Neanderthals.
Based on genetic information, the coexistence of two species was accompanied by active interspecific crossing.
According to experts, about 10,000 years ago, representatives of Homo sapiens were scattered all over the planet, and the Neanderthals were gone.
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