Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry

Mateja Hajdinjak (), Fabrizio Mafessoni, Laurits Skov, Benjamin Vernot, Alexander Hübner, Qiaomei Fu, Elena Essel, Sarah Nagel, Birgit Nickel, Julia Richter, Oana Teodora Moldovan, Silviu Constantin, Elena Endarova, Nikolay Zahariev, Rosen Spasov, Frido Welker, Geoff M. Smith, Virginie Sinet-Mathiot, Lindsey Paskulin, Helen Fewlass, Sahra Talamo, Zeljko Rezek, Svoboda Sirakova, Nikolay Sirakov, Shannon P. McPherron, Tsenka Tsanova, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Benjamin M. Peter, Matthias Meyer, Pontus Skoglund, Janet Kelso and Svante Pääbo ()
Additional contact information
Mateja Hajdinjak: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Fabrizio Mafessoni: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Laurits Skov: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Benjamin Vernot: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Alexander Hübner: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Qiaomei Fu: Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment
Elena Essel: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Sarah Nagel: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Birgit Nickel: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Julia Richter: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Oana Teodora Moldovan: Emil Racovita Institute of Speleology, Cluj Department
Silviu Constantin: Emil Racovita Institute of Speleology
Elena Endarova: National History Museum
Nikolay Zahariev: New Bulgarian University
Rosen Spasov: New Bulgarian University
Frido Welker: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Geoff M. Smith: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Virginie Sinet-Mathiot: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Lindsey Paskulin: University of Aberdeen
Helen Fewlass: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Sahra Talamo: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Zeljko Rezek: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Svoboda Sirakova: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Nikolay Sirakov: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Shannon P. McPherron: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Tsenka Tsanova: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Jean-Jacques Hublin: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Benjamin M. Peter: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Matthias Meyer: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Pontus Skoglund: Francis Crick Institute
Janet Kelso: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Svante Pääbo: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Nature, 2021, vol. 592, issue 7853, 253-257

Abstract: Abstract Modern humans appeared in Europe by at least 45,000 years ago1–5, but the extent of their interactions with Neanderthals, who disappeared by about 40,000 years ago6, and their relationship to the broader expansion of modern humans outside Africa are poorly understood. Here we present genome-wide data from three individuals dated to between 45,930 and 42,580 years ago from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria1,2. They are the earliest Late Pleistocene modern humans known to have been recovered in Europe so far, and were found in association with an Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefact assemblage. Unlike two previously studied individuals of similar ages from Romania7 and Siberia8 who did not contribute detectably to later populations, these individuals are more closely related to present-day and ancient populations in East Asia and the Americas than to later west Eurasian populations. This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record, and provides evidence that there was at least some continuity between the earliest modern humans in Europe and later people in Eurasia. Moreover, we find that all three individuals had Neanderthal ancestors a few generations back in their family history, confirming that the first European modern humans mixed with Neanderthals and suggesting that such mixing could have been common.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03335-3

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