More evidence is showing thatHomo sapiensand Neanderthals are more closely related than once consider . A raw approximation suggests that our species may have diverged from Neanderthals just 408,000 year ago , which is “ substantially by and by ” than previous estimates .
Neanderthalsare an nonextant metal money of hominin who live in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago . fogey remains reveal somenoticeable forcible differencesbetweenHomo sapiensand Neanderthals , such as a short and panoptic frame , a wider pelvis , and heavier bones .
However , climb up grounds is showing that we are not so dissimilar from our heavy - browed hominin cousins . Neanderthalswere esthetic , adaptable , and highly intelligent . They seem to have taken majuscule tending whenburying their bushed congenator , implying they possessed emotional predisposition and perhaps even had a good sense of their own deathrate .
Researchers have long fence when the last common ascendant between Neanderthals and humans lived , marking the full point where the two dissimilar species go their separate ways on their evolutionary journeying .
Statisticians at Tel - Aviv University recently used computing machine software foretell BEAST2 to study the genome of both species and work out the TMRCA ( metre to Most Recent Common Ancestor ) . Their finding argue that the split between forward-looking humans and Neanderthals occurred just 408,000 years ago – which is surprisingly recent .
This latest estimate from Tel - Aviv University is highly numerical and did n’t directly regard any archaeologists or paleoanthropologists . Nevertheless , it ’s broadly in short letter with other recent studies that have hint the difference occurred much later on than previously assumed .
Other late evidence from both fossils and DNAsuggeststhat Neanderthal and modern human stock separated between 500,000 years ago to 650,000 years ago . Previousestimatesindicated that the divergence could have pass off over 800,000 days ago .
Whenever the split pass off , the presence of Neanderthals did n’t swan far from us . Genetically , we ’re 99.7 percent identical and it isstarkly clearthat rearing crossbreeding occurred between the mintage fourth dimension and time again .
Genes from Neanderthals are especially prevalent in people of European descent whoinherit about 2 percentof their genome from Neanderthal ancestors . These factor still influence human populations today , such asthe size of folk ’ nosesto theirvulnerability to viral infections . cheer for that , Neanderthals .
The new bailiwick is print in the journalBMC Genomic Data .
