Research reveals that humans and Neanderthals lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago Smart News

Modern humans were already settling in northwestern Europe thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared forever in the southwestern part of the continent, according to recent excavations in Ranis, Germany. The new discovery provides unprecedented insight into the interaction of the two species, suggesting they may have lived next to each other and even interbred.

At the foot of a medieval castle, some 8 meters deep in the layered deposits of Ilsenhöhle Cave, scientists discovered leaf-shaped spear points, animal carcasses and 13 bones identified as early modern humans. I unearthed a piece. homo sapiens It existed in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago.

“The antiquity of this site and site suggests that there was significant overlap between Neanderthals and humans,” said study co-author Elena, a paleontologist and forensic geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley. Zavala told NBC News’ Evan. Bush.

The findings are detailed in three papers published Wednesday in the journal Nature and natural ecology and evolutionsuggest homo sapiens They crossed the European continent much faster than previously thought. Based on new discoveries, these early humans were able to withstand the frigid climate of northern Europe and build spear-shaped tools.

“The ruins of Ranis Cave provide evidence of initial dispersal. homo sapiens It ranges throughout the high latitudes of Europe. It turns out that stone structures thought to have been made by Neanderthals were actually part of early Neanderthals. homo sapiens Study co-author Jean-Jacques Hublin, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said in a statement: “This fundamentally changes what we know about this period. homo sapiens Long before Neanderthals disappeared in southwestern Europe, they reached northwestern Europe. ”

Researchers used genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA to show that the bone fragments discovered in Germany, some of which are new discoveries and others from excavations decades ago, were actually early modern. It was confirmed that it belonged to humans. Some of the mitochondrial DNA passed down through the mother appears to be identical, suggesting that some bones (even in older finds) belonged to the same person, or to people related through the maternal line. It was done.

Examination of the teeth and bones of nearby animals shows that these early humans existed in harsh tundra habitats of reindeer, cave bears, horses, and woolly rhinos, in an environment comparable to modern-day Siberia and northern Scandinavia. It turned out that

“This is a fascinating and surprising result, as until recently it was thought that resilience to cold climate conditions would not emerge until several thousand years later,” said archaeologist at Spain’s University of La Laguna, who led the study. Sara Pederzani says. In his statement, paleoclimatic studies of the site. “Perhaps cold grasslands with larger herds of predators were a more attractive environment for these human populations than previously appreciated.”

The study also provides possible answers to long-standing questions about the manner in which stone tools were manufactured at the time. The leaf-shaped spears found at the site are similar to tools unearthed in Moravia, the Czech Republic, as well as Poland, Germany and Britain. They were thought to have been produced by the same culture called Rinkombi Ranisyan Yersmanovichian (LRJ). Scientists have long wondered whether these tools were invented by Neanderthals or Homo sapiens. New findings point to the latter.

“The conventional wisdom was that these transitional artifact assemblages were primarily created by late Neanderthals,” Hublin said. live scienceCharles Q. Choi. “What we found with LRJ was that it was not created by Neanderthals; homo sapiens We made it to Europe much sooner than we expected. ”

Neanderthals, our closest ancient human relatives, went extinct about 40,000 years ago. New research shows that, contrary to some popular theories, homo sapiens They did not overtake Neanderthals in Europe all at once, but rather expanded into new areas and gradually replaced the species through “successive pulses of small groups,” Hublin said. live science. “We see homo sapiens They first colonized northern Europe and lived on the fringes of the Neanderthal world for thousands of years. ”

“These groups are doing research,” John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study, told NBC News. “They’re going to go to new places. They’ve lived there for a while. They have a different lifestyle. They feel safe moving into areas where Neanderthals were.”

Building on existing genomic evidence for occasional hybridization homo sapiens The next stage of research will be to determine the extent to which the two groups intersected, perhaps by looking for Neanderthal DNA in newly excavated bone fragments.

This evidence could help researchers take a step closer to understanding the demise of Neanderthals and reveal insights into our own existence.

“It follows the question of what makes us human. A thousand years ago, there were many different types of hominins on Earth,” Zavala told NBC News. “Well, it’s just us. Why is that? How did evolution arrive at our existence? And what does that mean for our future?”