Researchers publish in Nature strong evidence of an interbreeding event between Neanderthals and modern humans occurring ~100,000 years ago, much earlier than any previously documented. The evidence suggests early modern humans left Africa and mixed with now-extinct members of the human family, before the migration ‘out of Africa’ ~ 65,000 years ago. It is also evidence of breeding in the ‘opposite’ direction from that already known, that is, modern human DNA in a Neanderthal genome.
Source: Neanderthals mated with modern humans much earlier than previously thought, study finds
Video Credit: CSHL (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) Public Affairs
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