Neanderthal 'inhabitants bottleneck' round 110,000 years in the past might have contributed to their extinction

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Neanderthal ‘inhabitants bottleneck’ round 110,000 years in the past might have contributed to their extinction

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February 27, 2025

Neanderthal ‘inhabitants bottleneck’ round 110,000 years in the past might have contributed to their extinction

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Neanderthals might have been headed towards their demise a lot sooner than consultants beforehand thought, new analysis suggests.

Within the examine, printed on-line Feb. 20 within the journal Nature Communications, researchers found that round 110,000 years in the past, our closest human family members skilled a “inhabitants bottleneck” that decimated their genetic variety.

A inhabitants bottleneck happens when there’s a sudden discount in genetic variation inside a species. Bottlenecks in a species could be introduced on by quite a few processes, comparable to local weather change, looking or genocide. The top results of a bottleneck could also be a inhabitants that’s sickly or on the verge of extinction.

The scientists recognized the bottleneck by analyzing adjustments within the form of the Neanderthal internal ear over time.

Once they analyzed the internal ears of Neanderthal skulls, they found that there was an abrupt decline in variation on this bone in skulls dated to the start of the Late Pleistocene, signaling a big change within the Neanderthal skeleton.

Sometimes, comparisons amongst historical DNA samples assist researchers pinpoint when bottlenecks occurred. However on this case, the crew used the lowered variation within the Neanderthals’ ear bones as a proxy. They targeted on the semicircular canals, a set of bony tubes within the internal ear which can be absolutely shaped at delivery. Throughout life, these canals are crammed with fluid, serving to to keep up steadiness and detect head actions, comparable to shaking or nodding. As a result of semicircular canals are evolutionarily “impartial” — as a result of their variation doesn’t have an effect on an individual’s survival — monitoring delicate adjustments within the canals over time can make clear the scale and variety of a previous inhabitants.

Associated: Did we kill the Neanderthals? New analysis might lastly reply an age-old query.

Graphic showing the change in semicircular ear bones over time in Neanderthals

A graphic of the ear bones exhibiting the existence of a bottleneck, indicating a discount in genetic variation, throughout Neanderthal evolution. (Picture credit score: Rolf Quam)

Utilizing CT scans, the researchers examined the semicircular canals of 30 Neanderthals from three time durations: 13 from the location of Sima de los Huesos in Spain that had been dated to 430,000 years in the past, 10 from the location of Krapina in Croatia that had been dated to 120,000 years in the past, and 7 “late” Neanderthals from France, Belgium and Israel that had been dated to 64,000 to 40,000 years in the past.

This evaluation revealed that the group of late Neanderthals had considerably decrease variation of their internal ear bones than the sooner teams did, which led the researchers to conclude {that a} genetic bottleneck occasion occurred extra just lately than 120,000 years in the past.

“By together with fossils from a large geographical and temporal vary, we had been in a position to seize a complete image of Neanderthal evolution,” examine co-author Mercedes Conde-Valverde, a organic anthropologist on the College of Alcalá in Spain, stated in a assertion. The discount in variety between early and late Neanderthals “is very placing and clear, offering robust proof of a bottleneck occasion,” she stated.

The findings slot in effectively with earlier discoveries about Neanderthals, comparable to proof of inhabitants turnover that negatively affected European Neanderthals’ numbers. However it’s unclear if the identical sample holds for southwestern Asian Neanderthals, like those that lived at Shanidar in Iraqi Kurdistan, the researchers wrote of their examine, since their skulls weren’t accessible for evaluation.

Neanderthal quiz: How a lot have you learnt about our closest family members?

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