Skip to content

Neandertal DNA

Members Public

Top 10 discoveries about ancient people from DNA in 2022

Research on ancient genomes has moved way beyond population mixture into broader questions about how ancient people lived and interacted with their environments.

A researcher wearing protective mask, hair net, and gloves is reaching toward an archaeological profile with a test tube.
Members Public

The Nesher Ramla site: a third way between Neandertals and modern humans?

Fragments representing people who lived just before Skhūl and Qafzeh seem outside the expectations for these “early modern humans” or for Neandertals.

Archaeologists working on a large, terraced excavation area under a white canopy.
Members Public

Fossil profile: Zlatý kůň and the Neandertal heritage of early Upper Paleolithic Europeans

A skull from Czechia represents an individual from one of the earliest European modern human populations to encounter Neandertals.

Zlatý kůň cranium with information
Members Public

Research highlight: Accurate depiction of uncertainty in ancient DNA research: The case of Neandertal ancestry in Africa

An article in the Journal of Social Archaeology looking at how researchers shaped public perceptions of Neandertal DNA heritage in living people.

Cover page of "Accurate depiction of uncertainty in ancient DNA research"
Members Public

Neandertals got 6% of their genomes from Africa

An analysis by Melissa Hubisz and coworkers finds that mtDNA is not all that Neandertals received from our African ancestors

A Banksy-style portrait of a Neandertal wearing a blazer
Members Public

How much Neandertal DNA do today's African peoples have?

New research shows that today's populations in Africa have around one third the Neandertal ancestry as people in Eurasia.

A male Neanderthal with white beard and long hair, holding spear
Members Public

Lecture: Who were the ancestors of the Neandertals?

Looking at what we know about Neandertal origins and how our understanding has changed in the last decade.

Members Public

Should we be surprised if Neandertals, Denisovans, and modern humans didn’t form stable hybrid zones?

A geneticist asks why we don't see more persisting hybrid populations, and I find an answer in the theory of population source-sink dynamics.

A Neandertal artist's reconstruction at the Neanderthal Museum, wearing a suit and holding a stone tool.
Members Public

How much sex did it take for Neandertal DNA to enter modern populations?

Addressing a widespread misconception about what geneticists are really measuring when they look at population mixture.

A painting of the biblical figures Jacob and Esau
Members Public

Another Denisovan from Denisova Cave

A review of the 2015 work identifying the Denisova 8 specimen by Susanna Sawyer and coworkers.

Denisova 8 molar