We Now Have A Better Idea Of The Average Lifespan For Neanderthals

With remnants of their DNA living on in us, the lives of Neanderthals ( Homo neanderthalensis ) and humans ( Homo sapiens ) are intrinsically intertwined – but exactly how long were the lives of our extinct relatives? It’s not like birth and death certificates were a thing 40,000 years ago, so how can we figure it out?

According to a 2019 study from researchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, we can get an answer using the power of genomics. “If we know a species’ genome sequence, we can estimate its lifespan based on a special type of DNA change called DNA methylation,” said study author Dr Ben Mayne in a statement .

DNA methylation is what’s known as an epigenetic change , something that affects the expression of DNA without changing the underlying gene sequ