Did the first modern humans in Europe share a bed with nearby Neanderthals? Almost certainly not, according to a new analysis of 28,000 year old Cro-Magnon DNA.
The Cro-Magnons were the first modern Homo sapiens in Europe, living there between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago. Their DNA sequences match those of today鈥檚 Europeans, says , an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Ferrera, Italy, suggesting that 鈥淣eanderthal hybridisation鈥� did not occur.
His team published similar findings in 2003, but that study left open the possibility that the Cro-Magnon DNA had been contaminated by the researchers鈥� own genes.
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Now, Barbujani鈥檚 team has sequenced a section of DNA from everyone who handled the sample and found no trace of contamination.
鈥淲e knew we had a full and complete list of people who had potentially contaminated the specimen,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n this case we are really sure that that sequence does not represent contamination.鈥�
, an expert on ancient DNA at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, says the new tests convinced him of the Cro-Magnon DNA authenticity. 鈥淚 was one of the guys who criticised it heavily the first time,鈥� he says.
Prehistoric family tree
The reanalysed Cro-Magnon DNA, which comes from maternally-inherited mitochondria, casts further doubt on the kinship between Neanderthals and humans, he says. However, the paucity of Cro-Magnon DNA samples 鈥� just a handful exist, with Barbujani鈥檚 coming from a cave in southern Italy 鈥� still leaves the door ajar.
Barbujani agrees that mitochondrial DNA alone can鈥檛 rule out the possibility that Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals bred, but nearly every ancient human skeleton recovered in Europe belongs to either Cro-Magnons or Neanderthals, not the hybrids that would be expected from interbreeding.
The only potential intermediate is a child鈥檚 skull found in Portugal and dated to 24,500 years ago 鈥� after Neanderthals went extinct. However, other researchers have questioned the skeleton, suggesting it belonged to a .
Journal reference: (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002700)
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