Serbian scientists participated in an international team that discovered that late European Neanderthals originate from a single population, and the paper was published in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
A recent study involving new genetic and archaeological data showed that among the last Neanderthals in Europe, a population turnover occurred that resulted in a reduction of the variability of the Neanderthal gene pool immediately before their disappearance, about 40,000 years ago.
In this study, an international research team led by Professor Cosimo Posth from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen reached results indicating dramatic changes in the genetic history of European Neanderthals, as announced by the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.
Part of the team included Dušan Mihailović from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and Mirjana Roksandić from the University of Winnipeg, and the paper presented the results of mitochondrial DNA analyses of ten Neanderthal individuals, including a Neanderthal from the Pešturina cave near Niš.
It was determined that early Neanderthals from Pešturina, the Stajnia cave in Poland, and the Mezmaiskaya cave in Russia differed significantly genetically, but that their homogenization occurred later.
The results of genetic analyses and extensive archaeological material showed that at the beginning of the climate cooling 75,000 years ago, an aggregation of Neanderthal groups occurred in the area of southwestern France and that this population expanded to other parts of Europe 65,000 years ago.
All late Neanderthals originate from that lineage.
Research also showed that the number of Neanderthals decreased sharply 45,000 years ago.
According to the authors of the study, the absence of genetic diversity and the geographical isolation of the remaining Neanderthals could have significantly influenced their final extinction about 40,000 years ago.
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Source: Euronews; Photo: Chat GPT prompt by Serbian Times