🌅 The Oldest Human-Neanderthal Hybrid

SOURCE

Bouvier et al. (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• An analysis of a 140,000-year-old skeleton belonging to a five-year-old child has uncovered the earliest scientific evidence of biological and social relationships between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. The fossil is the earliest known human fossil to feature traits from both groups, and provides the first physical proof that the groups interbred.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Prior to the present study, the earliest known evidence of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals was the Lapedo Valley Child discovered in Portugal in 1998, which also showed mixed traits but dated to just 28,000 years ago. The 140,000-year-old skeleton—one of several found in Israel’s Skhul Cave around 90 years ago—confirms the two groups mixed for centuries longer than previously believed before the Neanderthals died out.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Us humans are a species called Homo sapiens, which are distinct from Homo neanderthalensis, commonly known as Neanderthals. Both species are part of the Homo genus, of which humans are the last surviving species. Despite disappearing some 40,000 years ago, Neanderthal genes still comprise anywhere from 1-4% of the human genome.