Two sets of Neanderthal teeth obtain in Jersey show some distinctly human characteristic , hinting that these two somebody may have been part of a “ intercrossed population ” make from hybridize between Neanderthals and modern humans .
The 13 Neanderthal teeth were originally find out in the early 20th one C at the situation of La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey , a humble British island found off the north coast of France . Nearby cave down payment suggest the teeth are less than 48,000 years one-time , which is super young considering Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 eld ago .
The new study , published in theJournal of Human Evolution , shows that the teeth have some clear Neanderthal characteristics , but they ’re not distinctive of these nonextant hominins . Along with miss sure features you ’d await to see in Neanderthal teeth , they have a distinct pattern that ’s typical of New humans . The dentition were previously assumed to have belong to the same somebody , but Modern enquiry suggests they get from at least two adult , which hints at trait dominant in the population .
This could suggest that the hominins in La Cotte might have been a “ hybrid population ” that had a impregnable mixing of Neanderthal and modern human stock , an idea that the research worker from the UK ’s Natural History Museum , UCL Institute of Archaeology , and the University of Kent hope to back up with evidence from ancient DNA .
“ Given that modern humanity overlapped with Neanderthals in some parts of Europe after 45,000 years ago , the strange features of these La Cotte person indicate that they could have had a double Neanderthal - modern human ancestry , ” said lead researcher Professor Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in a statement via email .
“ This idea of a hybrid population could be tested by the recovery of ancient DNA from the tooth , something that is now under investigation . ”
This might vocalise like a far - out idea , but it ’s well - established thathumans and Neanderthalswidely interbred with each other on multiple occasion throughout their imbrication chronicle . As a result of this canoodling , every human populationon Earth is think to have some Neanderthal deoxyribonucleic acid knock around in their genome . This is especiallytrue for citizenry of European descent , who are estimate to have around 1 to 4 percent of their cistron stem from Neanderthal line .
It ’s also clear that human and Neanderthals had offspring and widelyinterbred with Denisovans , another extinct species of hominin that live in Eurasia . In 2018 , scientists discovered a fleck of bone in a distant cave in Siberia that belonged to a teenage missy , no younger than 13 years one-time , that had aNeanderthal female parent and a Denisovan father .
