Biology

New study suggests humans and Neanderthals split off earlier than we thought

New study suggests humans and Neanderthals split off earlier than we thought
New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we previously thought
New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we previously thought
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New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we previously thought
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New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we previously thought
New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we previously thought
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New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we previously thought

It's not known exactly when humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor, but the estimated window is very wide, between 300,000 and 800,000 years ago. Now a new study has found evidence that this split took place towards the earlier end of that range, and may have taken place even longer ago still.

The research, conducted by anthropologist Dr. Aida Gomez-Robles at the University College London, focused on the teeth of hominins found in a cave called Sima de los Huesos in Spain. At this site, the remains of 28 people have been discovered and dated to about 430,000 years ago. Previous studies have identified the bones as belonging to Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestral species of the Neanderthals.

Some studies have suggested that H. heidelbergensis is the last common ancestor of the human and Neanderthal lines, which then diverged roughly 400,000 to 600,000 years ago. But others say there's no evidence that humans are descended from H. heidelbergensis at all, and instead the species sits on the Neanderthal branch of the family tree, after humans split off.

The new study seems to agree with that latter idea. Both DNA analyses and features of the teeth suggest the Spanish hominins are closely related to Neanderthals.

"Sima de los Huesos hominins are characterized by very small posterior teeth (premolars and molars) that show multiple similarities with classic Neanderthals," says Gomez-Robles. "It is likely that the small and Neanderthal-looking teeth of these hominins evolved from the larger and more primitive teeth present in the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans."

But this discovery has larger implications for human and Neanderthal evolution. Generally, for these teeth to be this advanced down the Neanderthal track, evolution must have either worked extremely fast, or had more time than is currently believed. That pushes back the timeline of when humans and Neanderthals split off from the last common ancestor.

The evolution of dental shapes seems to occur at a pretty steady rate across the board. For this study Gomez-Robles used quantitative data to measure how long it might take for teeth to look like those in the Sima de los Huesos specimens, given different projected starting points. She concluded that the last common ancestor must have lived more than 800,000 years ago.

"Any divergence time between Neanderthals and modern humans younger than 800,000 years ago would have entailed an unexpectedly fast dental evolution in the early Neanderthals from Sima de los Huesos," says Gomez-Robles.

Of course, Gomez-Robles acknowledges that the discrepancy could be explained through other factors. These Neanderthals were isolated from other populations in mainland Europe, and under the right circumstances evolution has been known to work overtime. But the simplest explanation seems to be that humans and Neanderthals split off earlier, which is backed up by other studies.

That said, the study of human evolution is murky, and the story is constantly changing as new research comes to light. We might never know all the details, but scientists won't stop looking.

The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

Source: University College London via Science Daily

4 comments
4 comments
amazed W1
Bearing in mind how much Neanderthal DNA many of us have, how long ago did the two branches, Ns and HSs, become separate species, and so become incapable of interbreeding? From what one reads in this excellent on-line journal, there should be a time when the common ancestor's DNA split into the two strains, which were initially fairly but decreasingly compatible as the generations went by, then went through the horse/donkey period of producing infertile hinnys and mules and then finally moved to incompatible DNAs.
After thought: has anybody carried out analogous research into the separation of the horse, donkey, zebra etc species? It might give us a clue and is a lot safer than trying to study the third well known example of lions, tigers, ligers and tigons. Mules don't kick if you talk to them nicely.
WilliamSager
Amazed W1 Who ever said that humans and Neanderthal ever were incapable of inbreeding? Think of Neanderthals as nothing more than humans who lived in Europe long enough to survive in the colder climate.
F. Tuijn
There is no reason to consider Neanderthals and Denisovans as not human. I object to the language used in this article.
Colt12
A crude hammer was recently found that carbon dated back 1.5 million years ago. We need to keep looking.