The Last Neanderthals Were More Genetically Diverse Than We Thought

The final Neanderthals were not all members of one genetically identical, isolated population. Researchers recovered genetic data from 27 Neanderthals who lived less than roughly 52,500 years ago across ten sites in Belgium and France, including a high-quality genome from a roughly 45,000-year-old Neanderthal at Goyet Cave. Most belonged to a closely related northwestern European population, but some individuals carried ancestry from an older Neanderthal lineage that predated the major split among later Neanderthals. This shows that previously hidden genetic diversity survived surprisingly late. Researchers also found no evidence of recent modern-human gene flow into these sampled Neanderthals despite temporal overlap between Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in the region. This discovery is changing how scientists reconstruct the population history immediately preceding Neanderthal extinction. HASHTAGS: #neanderthal #ancientdna #LastNeanderthals #humanevolution #NeanderthalDNA #humanorigins #ancienthumans #iceage #genetics #Archaeology #prehistory #Archaeogenetics #paleoanthropology #ancienteurope #evolution