Human skull discovery in Israel proves humans lived side-by-side
with Neanderthals
Scientists unearthed the cranial fragments from Manot Cave in West
Galilee
The partial skull of an anatomically modern human who lived alongside
the Neanderthals about 55,000 years ago has been unearthed from a cave
in northern Israel, scientists say.
It is one of the oldest non-African skulls of Homo sapiens and comes
close to the date when modern humans migrated out of Africa, eventually
to colonise Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas.
Scientists unearthed the cranial fragments from Manot Cave in West
Galilee, a prehistoric site with an impressive archaeological record of
flint and bone artefacts. Dating has placed the skull within the period
50,000 to 60,000 years ago, a time when Neanderthals were also known to
have inhabited the same region.
“It has been suspected that modern man and Neanderthals were in the
same place at the same time, but we didn’t have the physical evidence.
Now we do have it in the new skull fossil,” said Bruce Latimer, a
palaeontologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio,
who took part in the study.
“Modern humans and Neanderthals likely encountered each other
foraging for food,” Dr Latimer said.
Modern humans share a small percentage of their DNA with
Neanderthals, suggesting that limited interbreeding had taken place at
some point in the past. However, it is not known when this contact took
place, or whether it had occurred somewhere in Europe or the Middle
East.
The overall shape of the Manot cranium is more similar to the ancient
fossil skulls found in Europe compared to other modern human skulls
found in the Middle East, according to the study published in Nature led
by Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University.
“This suggests that the Manot people could be closely related to the
first modern humans who later successfully colonised Europe,” the
authors said, adding that the skull suggests that interbreeding with
Neanderthals could have taken place in the Middle East rather than in
Europe.
Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural
History Museum in London, said the skull is the first “well dated”
modern human to have lived in the time frame when interbreeding with
Neanderthals was a possibility.
“Without accompanying DNA data it is impossible to say whether the
Manot skull contains Neanderthal DNA from an interbreeding event, but
its resemblance to [Europeans and Africans] suggests that any
Neanderthal influence on its skull shape is minimal.” Prof Stringer
said.
“Manot might represent some of the elusive first migrants in the
hypothesised out-of-Africa event about 60,000 years ago, a population
whose descendants ultimately spread right across Asia, and also into
Europe,” he said.
“Its discovery raises hopes of more complete specimens from this
critical region and time period,” he said.
- The Independent
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