Tag

Northwestern Europe

All articles tagged with #northwestern europe

anthropology3 hours ago•8 min saved

Northwestern Europe’s Neanderthals Revealed as a Connected Regional Population, DNA Study Finds

A Nature study sequenced 27 Neanderthals from Belgium and France (plus a high-quality genome from a 45,000-year-old Goyet Cave individual) and found that late Neanderthals in northwestern Europe formed a connected regional population with close ties across the region. Belgian specimens show no signs of mating among close relatives, and none of the Neanderthal genomes carry recent human DNA, suggesting asymmetry with modern humans. There is no evidence that harmful mutations accumulated over time, indicating extinction was not simply due to genetic deterioration; the final chapter of Neanderthal life in this region remains open, highlighting regional diversity and connectivity prior to their disappearance around 40,000 years ago.

via Sci.News|

#ancient-dna #anthropology #belgium-france

science9 hours ago•114 min saved

Northwestern European Neanderthals Were Genetically Diverse, Challenging Inbreeding Doom

A new study of Neanderthal DNA from Belgium and France shows late Neanderthals in northwestern Europe were more genetically diverse and faced little inbreeding, existing as a large, interconnected population split into at least four groups. The genome from a high-quality Neanderthal sequence revealed no evidence of recent Neanderthal–modern human mating in these samples, suggesting that reduced genetic diversity and inbreeding were not the primary drivers of Neanderthal extinction. The findings imply multiple interconnected Neanderthal populations persisted across the region, challenging the idea that inbreeding alone doomed them.

via Live Science|

#ancient-dna #genetics #human-evolution

science1 day ago•59 min saved

Northwestern Neanderthals formed a connected population with no recent human admixture

Genome data from 27 late Neanderthals in the Meuse Basin and a high-coverage Goyet genome show northwestern European Neanderthals were a closely related, broadly connected population with limited kin-based inbreeding, no evidence of recent modern-human introgression, and greater connectivity than eastern Neanderthals. A GN1–Vindija relationship places these western Neanderthals in a shared population history around 54,000 years ago, while mtDNA reveals multiple lineages and Y chromosomes do not cluster by site. The results support an isolation-by-distance pattern rather than a single local group and find no clear rise in genetic load over time to explain extinction. Modern human ancestry in Eurasia appears linked to Vindija-like Neanderthals outside NW Europe; overall, western Neanderthals were diverse and interconnected in their final millennia.

via Nature|

#ancient-dna #meuse-basin #neanderthals