Scientists Sequenced the DNA of the ‘Last Neanderthal’—and It Alters Human History
Discover new clues about how our ancient relatives disappeared from time.
By Michael Natale, Popular Mechanics
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something,” says Thorin Oakenshield in J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy novel The Hobbit. “You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
Here’s the study published in Cell Genomics:
Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction
Summary: “Neanderthal genomes have been recovered from sites across Eurasia, painting an increasingly complex picture of their populations’ structure that mostly indicates that late European Neanderthals belonged to a single metapopulation with no significant evidence of population structure. Here, we report the discovery of a late Neanderthal individual, nicknamed “Thorin,” from Grotte Mandrin in Mediterranean France, and his genome. These dentognathic fossils, including a rare example of distomolars, are associated with a rich archeological record of Neanderthal final technological traditions in this region ∼50–42 thousand years ago. Thorin’s genome reveals a relatively early divergence of ∼105 ka with other late Neanderthals. Thorin belonged to a population with a small group size that showed no genetic introgression with other known late European Neanderthals, revealing some 50 ka of genetic isolation of his lineage despite them living in neighboring regions. These results have important implications for resolving competing hypotheses about causes of the disappearance of the Neanderthals.”
AI’s interpretation (“in English”):
Scientists have found and studied Neanderthal DNA from various sites across Europe and Asia. Until now, most of this evidence suggested that late European Neanderthals were part of one large, interconnected population without much genetic diversity.
However, researchers have recently discovered a new Neanderthal individual they’ve nicknamed “Thorin.” They found Thorin’s remains, including some interesting teeth and jaw bones, in a cave called Grotte Mandrin in southern France. These remains were found alongside tools and artifacts from the last period of Neanderthal culture in that area, dating back to about 50,000 to 42,000 years ago.
When scientists analyzed Thorin’s DNA, they found something surprising. His genetic lineage split off from other late Neanderthals much earlier than expected, around 105,000 years ago. This suggests that Thorin belonged to a small, isolated group of Neanderthals that hadn’t mixed with other Neanderthal populations for a very long time – about 50,000 years – even though they lived relatively close to other Neanderthal groups.
This discovery is important because it changes our understanding of Neanderthal populations. It shows that some groups of Neanderthals remained isolated for long periods, which could help explain why Neanderthals eventually went extinct. This new information might help scientists better understand the various factors that led to the disappearance of Neanderthals.
