Anthropologists from the University of Geneva examined more than 4,000 ancient genomes of representatives of Europe and Asia and found that Homo sapiens living in Asia inherited more Neanderthal genes (4%) than their European relatives (2%). The results of the study were presented as follows: magazine Science Developments.
It is known that Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens. Scientists expected that Europeans would have more Neanderthal genes, since the Neanderthals’ home range was in Europe. Analysis showed that 40 thousand years ago this was exactly the case, but then Homo destroyed almost all Neanderthals, after which it was impossible to interbreed with them.
This did not happen in East Asia: People who arrived there 10,000 years ago began interbreeding with Homo sapiens, who carried much of the DNA of the Neanderthals who had arrived there before. And there was no one to dilute their genomes. But scientists believe East Asians may have interbred with other Neanderthal populations in places still unknown to science.
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