Neanderthals Were Absorbed Into The Modern Human Population Through Generations Of Interbreeding

Maybe Neanderthals were not wiped out in a catastrophic event some 40,000 years ago. In fact, perhaps they never truly disappeared in a definite sense. New research has examined the flow of genes between prehistoric human populations using mathematical models, concluding that Neanderthals were effectively absorbed into Homo sapiens through frequent bouts of interbreeding. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

They weren’t simply outcompeted or driven to extinction, but rather intertwined with our ancestors over tens of thousands of years. As generations passed, Neanderthal DNA became increasingly diluted within the human gene pool. Eventually, they became so genetically assimilated into Homo sapiens , which were much mor