Photo: Tom Bjorklund
Their genes still live on in modern humans.
Scientists suggest that Neanderthals may not have truly gone extinct—at least not genetically, reports Science Alert.
A new mathematical model explored a scenario in which Neanderthals gradually disappeared, not through “true extinction,” but via genetic absorption into another species: modern humans.
The analysis indicates that a prolonged period of interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals could have led to near-complete genetic assimilation over 10,000 to 30,000 years.
Andrea Amadei of Rome’s Tor Vergata University and colleagues describe their model as simple and non-regional, providing a “plausible explanation for the observed disappearance of Neanderthals.”
Increasing evidence shows that humans and Neanderthals interacted and reproduced over thousands of years. Today, non-African humans retain 1–4% of Neanderthal DNA.
The exact reasons for Neanderthals’ disappearance around 40,000 years ago remain unknown. Researchers suggest a combination of factors—including environmental changes, loss of genetic diversity, and competition with modern humans—played a role.
Amadei and co-authors—evolutionary geneticist Julia Lin from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and ecologist Simone Fattorini from the University of L’Aquila, Italy—note that their model does not exclude these other explanations.
The model relies on assumptions based on birth rates among modern hunter-gatherer communities. The researchers examined how quickly small Neanderthal groups could have been absorbed by modern humans, given the frequency of interbreeding.
Their results align with recent archaeological findings, suggesting that Neanderthal disappearance in Europe was gradual rather than sudden.
