It ’s wide acknowledged that modernistic Europeans mated with Neanderthals at some stop in the past . We ’re just not entirely certain when or where . The recent discovery of an ancient skull in Israel may map the critical missing data link anthropologists have been look for .
The 55,000 - year - old partial skull was discovered in Northern Israel ’s Mano Cave in 2008 and has been under psychoanalysis ever since . It ’s ply sweet insights into the migration pattern of modernistic man as they left Africa , while showing when they may have co - habited and bred with Neanderthals .
According to an depth psychology conducted by Case Western Reserve University ’s Bruce Latimer , in conjunction with Tel Aviv University ’s Israel Hershkovitz , other man could have met and interbred in the Levant realm 55,000 age ago . That ’s about 10,000 year before than old estimates . But what makes Latimer ’s claim particularly compelling is that he has genuine , tangible physical evidence in the form of this remarkable skull fragment .
Image : Hershkovitz et al./Nature .
The discovery suggest that the Manot people are the predecessors of the former palaeolithic populations of Europe , and that mod humans co - live with Neanderthals in the Near East for potentially grand of years .
The New York Timesreports :
They say this was “ the first fogy grounds from the vital period when familial and archaeologic model predict that African modernistic humans successfully migrated out of Africa and colonized Eurasia . ”
The research worker further concluded that the Manot specimen “ provides authoritative clues about the sound structure of New humans in close chronological proximity to a likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals . ” They also noted that the shape of the cranium established this as a to the full modernistic human at a clip when warmer and wetter conditions were favourable for human migration out of Africa .
In other word , Dr. Hershkovitz said in an consultation , the Manot cranium “ is the drop connection between African and European populations . ”
Excitingly , the partial skull contain “ hybrid ” features consistent with other human / Neanderthal miscegenation . The skull , nickname Manot 1 , belonged to a fairly small adult individual of unknown sex activity .
“ Here we in reality hold a skull of a human being that was go next to the Neanderthals , ” notice Hershkovitz in a Nature Newsarticle . “ Potentially [ it ] is the one that could interbreed with the Neanderthals . ”
The researchers caution , however , that we can not definitely conclude that the specimen was the product of interbreeding . More samples , include deoxyribonucleic acid grounds , are needed to essay that the trait are n’t some form of transmitted anomalousness . The research worker are promising that they ’ll find other remains in various caves located in the area in Galilee , which were invade for long times by Neanderthals between 65,000 and 50,000 years ago .
Read more at theNew York TimesandNature News . Check out the scientific studyhere .
Top photo : Amos Frumkin / Hebrew University Cave Research Center .
anthropologyArchaeologyearly humansneanderthalsPaleontologyScienceStone historic period
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