The 40‑kyr‑old Peștera cu Oase jaw from Romania carries 6‑9%% Neanderthal DNA, with three long segments (50 cM) indicating a Neanderthal ancestor just 4‑6 generations back – a striking contrast to the tiny, fragmented Neanderthal fragments in modern non‑Africans.
Peștera cu Oase fossil shows recent Neanderthal admixture
RomaniaBioarchaeology
Key facts
- Peștera cu Oase jaw from Romania dates to around 40,000 years ago
- This individual had a Neanderthal ancestor 4-6 generations earlier (approximately 200 years)
- The Oase 1 individual had 6-9% Neanderthal ancestry, higher than modern non-Africans (~2%)
- Researchers identified three Neanderthal DNA segments over 50 centimorgans in length
- The length of these segments indicates recent interbreeding rather than ancient admixture
- Modern humans carry many small fragmented Neanderthal DNA segments from thousands of generations of recombination
- An estimated 20-40% of the Neanderthal genome survives in modern humans
Site mentioned
Sources
nature.com
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journals.openedition.org
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pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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dspace.library.uvic.ca
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link.springer.com
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nature.com
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pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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