Neanderthals: New Findings & Theories

The Last Neanderthal in France?.
Overview:
The discovery by Leveque and Vandermeersch 1 of the fragmentary remains of a skeleton of classic neanderthal type in a Chatelperronian archaeological layer at Saint-Cesaire (Charente-Maritime, France), raises once again the problems of the replacement c. 34,000 BP of the neanderthal population (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) of western and central Europe by a population of sapiens men (Homo sapiens sapiens). Three explanatory hypotheses have been proposed: (I) straightforward evolutionary transformation in situ of neanderthal into sapiens; (2) immigration of sapiens leading to the extinction of the neanderthals; (3) sapiens immigration followed by interbreeding in which the distinctive characters of the neanderthals were lost.​

Source: ApSimon, A. The last neanderthal in France?. Nature 287, 271–272 (1980).
 

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  • ApSimon, A. M. (1980). The last neanderthal in France Nature, 287(5780), 271–272.pdf
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Ancient DNA, Late Neandertal Survival, and Modern‐Human–Neandertal Genetic Admixture
Overview:
One of the longest-standing questions in paleoanthropology is the place of Neandertals in human evolution. The fate of Neandertals is often framed in terms of polarized replacement and multiregional models. In reality, most anthropological geneticists, human paleontologists, and Paleolithic archaeologists now favor a predominantly extra-European origin for the earliest modern human populations in Europe (e.g., Bra¨uer 2001, Conard and Bolus 2003, d’Errico 2003, Eswaran 2002, Klein 2003, Pa¨a¨bo 2003, Relethford 2001b, Stringer 2003, Templeton 2002, Trinkaus et al. 2003, Underhill et al. 2001, Zilha˜o and d’Errico 1999, but see Wolpoff 2002). Intense debate, however, continues about the nature and timing of the interactions between ancient modern humans and Neandertals, with particular emphasis on the degree to which Neandertals contributed genetically to the earliest modern human populations in Europe.

Source: Weaver, T. D., & Roseman, C. C. (2005). Ancient DNA, Late Neandertal Survival, and Modern‐Human–Neandertal Genetic Admixture. Current Anthropology, 46(4), 677–683.​
 

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  • Weaver, T. D., & Roseman, C. C. (2005). Ancient DNA, Late Neandertal Survival, and Modern‐Huma...pdf
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Neanderthals showed ability to adapt to climate and food sources but then ...

An unchartered area in the foothills of the Southern Pyrenees in Spain is providing insights into a poorly known period of Neanderthal history, offering clues that could help archaeologists uncover the mystery of their downfall, according to research from The Australian National University (ANU).

The research is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Abric Pizarro is one of only a few sites worldwide dating from 100,000 to 65,000 years ago during a period called MIS 4. The researchers have gathered hundreds of thousands of artifacts, including stone tools, animal bones and other evidence, providing significant data about the Neanderthal way of life during that time—largely unknown in human history until now.

The findings reveal Neanderthals were able to adapt to their environment, challenging the archaic humans' reputation as slow-footed cavemen and shedding light on their survival and hunting skills.

Lead author and ANU archaeologist, Dr. Sofia Samper Carro, said that the findings show that Neanderthals knew the best ways to exploit the area and territory and were resilient through harsh climate conditions.

"Our surprising findings at Abric Pizarro show how adaptable Neanderthals were. The animal bones we have recovered indicate that they were successfully exploiting the surrounding fauna, hunting red deer, horses and bison, but also eating freshwater turtles and rabbits, which imply a degree of planning rarely considered for Neanderthals," she said.

According to the researchers, these new insights challenge widespread beliefs that Neanderthals only hunted large animals, such as horses and rhinoceros.

"Through the bones that we are finding, which display cut marks, we have direct proof that Neanderthals were capable of hunting small animals," Dr. Samper Carro said. "The bones on this site are very well preserved, and we can see marks of how Neanderthals processed and butchered these animals. Our analysis of the stone artifacts also demonstrates variability in the type of tools produced, indicating Neanderthals' capability to exploit the available resources in the area."

Shedding light on this crucial transitional period helps archaeologists edge closer to solving a mystery that has plagued researchers for decades: what drove the Neanderthals to extinction?

According to the researchers, finding sites like Abric Pizarro, from this specific and not well-recorded period, gives information about how Neanderthals lived when modern humans were not in the area yet and shows that they were thriving.

"The unique site at Abric Pizarro gives a glimpse of Neanderthal behavior in a landscape they had been roaming for hundreds of thousands of years," Dr. Samper Carro said. ...

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-rare-archaeological-site-reveals-neanderthal.html
 
Where they did the deed.

A small team of archaeologists, two from Germany, one from Denmark and another from Iran, has identified a potential region for interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens during the Late Pleistocene.

In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes how they used ecological niche modeling and a geographic information system to identify the locations of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens living in parts of Southeast Europe and Southwest Asia and the places where they most likely interacted.

Prior research has shown that interbreeding occurred between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens populations—Neanderthal DNA has been found in the genome of modern humans. What is still not known is where the interbreeding occurred.

For this new study, the team has used a variety of sources to pin down one of the most likely regions for interacting, and thus interbreeding to occur.

After studying the geographical distribution of both Neanderthal and Homo sapiens during the time period, it is believed they comingled, and the researchers narrowed down the list of possible places to just one region—the Zagros Mountains on the Persian Plateau. In modern times, the mountain range stretches from Iran to northern parts of Iraq and into southeastern Turkey.

Prior research has shown that the region would have been ideal for the Neanderthals living there; its biodiversity and varied topology and warm weather would have made for a good standard of living. It also would have been in the path of Homo sapiens as they migrated out of Africa, right around the time that Neanderthals were still living there, setting up the likelihood of the two meeting.

Notably, the region has also been found to be a treasure trove for both Neanderthal and Homo sapiens skeletons. It is also the place where the Neanderthal "flower burial" was discovered. The region has also been found to be one of the major pathways that Homo sapiens took when they began moving out of Africa. ...

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-neanderthal-homo-sapiens-interbreeding.html
 
The old chestnut: did Sapiens kill off Neanderthalensis?

About 37,000 years ago, Neanderthals clustered in small groups in what is now southern Spain. Their lives may have been transformed by the eruption of the Phlegraean Fields in Italy a few thousand years earlier, when the caldera's massive explosion disrupted food chains across the Mediterranean region.

They may have gone about their daily life: Crafting stone tools, eating birds and mushrooms, engraving symbols on rocks, and creating jewelry out of feathers and shells. They likely never realized they were among the last of their kind.

But the story of their extinction actually begins tens of thousands of years earlier, when the Neanderthals became isolated and dispersed, eventually ending nearly half a million years of successful existence in some of the most forbidding regions of Eurasia.

By 34,000 years ago, our closest relatives had effectively gone extinct. But because modern humans and Neanderthals overlapped in time and space for thousands of years, archaeologists have long wondered whether our species wiped out our closest relatives. This may have occurred directly, such as through violence and warfare, or indirectly, through disease or competition for resources.

Now, researchers are solving the mystery of how the Neanderthals died out — and what role our species played in their demise.

"I think the fact is, we do know what happened to Neanderthals, and it is complex," Shara Bailey, a biological anthropologist at New York University, told Live Science. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...search-may-finally-answer-an-age-old-question
 
Where would we be without Neanderthals?

Far from triumphantly breezing out of Africa, modern humans went extinct many times before going on to populate the world, new studies have revealed.

The new DNA research has also shed new light on the role our Neanderthal cousins played in our success.

While these early European humans were long seen as a species which we successfully dominated after leaving Africa, new studies show that only humans who interbred with Neanderthals went on to thrive, while other bloodlines died out.

In fact, Neanderthal genes may have been crucial to our success by protecting us from new diseases we hadn't previously encountered.

The research for the first time pinpoints a short period 48,000 years ago when Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals after leaving Africa, after which they went on to expand into the wider world.

Homo sapiens had crossed over from the African continent before this, but the new research shows these populations before the interbreeding period did not survive.

Prof Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Biology, in Germany, told BBC News that the history of modern humans will now have to be rewritten.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwydgyy8120o
 
It was in their blood.

When modern humans journeyed out of Africa, a rapid evolution in their red blood cells may have helped them survive — but it may have also led to the eventual disappearance of Neanderthals, a new study finds.

By sequencing the genomes of dozens of people who lived between 120,000 and 20,000 years ago, researchers found that Neanderthals had a rare blood group that could have been fatal to their newborns. Their study was published Thursday (Jan. 23) in the journal Scientific Reports.

Humans' blood groups are characterized by proteins and sugars — called antigens — found on the surface of red blood cells. Many people are familiar with the ABO blood typing system, which lumps blood into the groups A, B, AB and O. The antigens on a person's red blood cells are recognized as safe by the immune system, but someone with type B blood will have antibodies that attack type A antigens, for example.

Another important antigen is the Rh factor, which gives the "positive" and "negative" signs to blood types. So, nowadays, knowing which of the eight possible combinations of blood group and Rh factor a person has is key to a successful blood transfusion.

But red blood cells are even more complicated than this — there are hundreds of other, lesser-known antigens known to hang out on the surface of these cells in modern humans, as well as differences in the inside of the cells. Since these variations in red blood cells are passed down over the generations, a team of researchers at Aix-Marseille University in France decided to look into ancient genomes to better understand the evolutionary history of Neanderthals, Denisovans and humans. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...may-help-explain-their-demise-new-study-finds
 
Hybrid child skeleton dated.

Scientists have dated the skeleton of an ancient child that caused a stir when it was first discovered, because it carries features from both humans and Neanderthals.

The child’s remains were discovered 27 years ago in a rock shelter called Lagar Velho in central Portugal. The nearly complete skeleton was stained red, and scientists think it may have been wrapped in a painted animal skin before burial.

When the humanlike child was discovered, scientists noted that some of their attributes, including body proportions and jawbone, looked Neanderthal. The researchers suggested that the child was descended from populations in which humans and Neanderthals mated and mixed.

It was a radical notion at the time, but advances in genetics have since proven those populations existed and people today still carry Neanderthal DNA. But trying to figure out when exactly the child lived has been difficult.

Small roots had grown through the bones and contamination, from plants or other sources, made it impossible for scientists to use traditional carbon dating to measure the child’s age. They instead dated the charcoal and animal bones around the skeleton to between 27,700 and 29,700 years ago.

Techniques have improved, and researchers reported on Friday in the journal Science Advances that they were able to date the skeleton by measuring part of a protein that is found primarily in human bones.

Examining part of a crushed arm, they said that the earlier estimate was in the ballpark – the skeleton was from between 27,700 and 28,600 years ago.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/s...les-both-humans-and-neanderthals-1738123.html
 
Possibly Denisovan as well as Neanderthal related or even Archaic Homo Sapiens or various hybridization, ghosts, unknown unknowns. etc. A void that one day will be known. Anyways, a new discovery in North America showing the paradigm is beginning to shift.
 
Did they attend each other's funerals?

The first-ever published research on Tinshemet Cave reveals that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in the mid-Middle Paleolithic Levant not only coexisted but actively interacted, sharing technology, lifestyles, and burial customs. These interactions fostered cultural exchange, social complexity, and behavioral innovations, such as formal burial practices and the symbolic use of ocher for decoration.

The findings suggest that human connections, rather than isolation, were key drivers of technological and cultural advancements, highlighting the Levant as a crucial crossroads in early human history.

A new discovery at Tinshemet Cave in central Israel is reshaping our understanding of human interactions during the Middle Paleolithic (MP) period in the Near East. The cave, remarkable for its wealth of archaeological and anthropological findings, has revealed several human burials—the first mid-MP burials unearthed in over fifty years.

This research, published in Nature Human Behavior, marks the first publication on Tinshemet Cave and presents compelling evidence that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in the region not only coexisted but also shared aspects of daily life, technology, and burial customs. These findings underscore the complexity of their interactions and hint at a more intertwined relationship than previously assumed.

The excavation of Tinshemet Cave, led by Prof. Yossi Zaidner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Marion Prévost of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been ongoing since 2017.

A primary goal of the research team is to determine the nature of Homo sapiens–Neanderthal relationships in the mid-Middle Paleolithic Levant. Were they rivals competing for resources, peaceful neighbors, or even collaborators? ...

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-burials-compelling-evidence-neanderthal-homo.html
 
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