Carl Zimmer
MATTER
In 2010, scientists made a startling discovery about our past: About 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of living Europeans and Asians.
Now two teams of researchers have come to another intriguing conclusion: Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of Asians at a second point in history, giving them an extra infusion of Neanderthal DNA.
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If Neanderthals became extinct 40,000 years ago, they may have disappeared before Europeans and Asian populations genetically diverged. How could there have been Neanderthals left to interbreed with Asians a second time?
It’s conceivable that the extinction of the Neanderthals happened later in Asia. If that is true, there might yet more recent Neanderthal fossils waiting to be discovered there.
Or perhaps Asians interbred with some other group of humans that had interbred with Neanderthals and carried much of their DNA. Later, that group disappeared.
“That’s a paradox the field needs to address,” Dr. Lohmueller said.
