The 2010 discovery that early humans and Neanderthals once interbred was a scientific bombshell — the revelation of a genetic legacy that’s since been found to play a role in the lives of modern people, influencing circadian rhythms, immune system function and the way some feel pain.
Scientists, however, have found it surprisingly hard to piece together gene flow in the opposite direction: how intermingling between the two groups may have shaped Neanderthals, who went extinct around 40,000 years ago. With the help of new techniques, a new study is painting a clearer picture.
The analysis, published July 12 in the journal Science, showed that the two groups exchanged DNA at multiple points over the past 250,000 years, shedding light on how Neanderthals disappeared and potentially rewriting the story of how and when our Homo sapiens ancestors left Africa. READ MORE from CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment