Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Archaeological evidence has shown that our modern human ancestors did not shy away from jumping in bed with other early hominin groups their paths crossed with during windows in evolutionary history. It has long been known that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred quite a bit, and repeatedly at that. However, most recent findings have found that our ancestors were a lot more adventurous than we thought.<br /><br />For a long time, scientists assumed <keyword id="21346409" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-evolution" source="keywords">human evolution</keyword> was a neat, linear process. We mingled, swapped DNA and picked up genes that helped us thrive in different environments. Thanks to recent <keyword id="23569495" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="genetic-research" source="keywords">genetic research</keyword>, scientists now know that Denisovans played a big part in this story – and they did it in more ways than one. Evidence shows that Denisovans contributed DNA to our ancestors not just once, but in at least three separate <keyword id="23952885" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="interbreeding-events" source="keywords">interbreeding events</keyword>!<br />  <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="101066001" title="How interbreeding between humans and our Neanderthal cousins 40,000 years ago affects our health today" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Unlike Neanderthal remains, scientists have but a few Denisovan fossils to study — a pinky finger bone, jaw, teeth, and skull fragments. And this is likely why we have taken longer to piece together their history and relationship to us. While the quest continues to uncover more Denisovan remains, new research has already revealed some fascinating details about how these ancient relatives help us today.<br /><br />For instance, bits of <keyword id="23952883" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Denisovan-DNA" source="keywords">Denisovan DNA</keyword> were found in the genomes of people living today, especially in regions where survival meant adapting to extreme conditions. As it turns out, a Denisovan gene helps people cope with low oxygen levels at high altitudes in <keyword id="23952888" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tibetan-populations" source="keywords">Tibetan populations</keyword>. In Arctic Inuit populations, Denisovan genes help people generate extra warmth to combat freezing temperatures. Other Denisovan genes boost our immune system, making us more resilient in the face of illness.<br /><br />So, the next time you’re taking a deep breath at high altitudes or bundling up against the cold, remember: you might just be tapping into some ancient Denisovan resilience that’s been part of your genetic code for thousands of years.<br />  <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="105996752" title="If you&amp;#39;re an early riser, you may have Neanderthal DNA to thank for it" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><br />

Modern humans mated with Denisovans several times in history and it gave us some surprising superpowers!

You might think our early Homo sapiens ancestors were too busy fending off saber-tooth cats or inventing fire to worry about dating, but turns out, they were pretty social. In fact, about 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals not only crossed paths, but also seemingly interbred. But the big question has always been <em>where</em> this ancient affair took place. Thanks to recent studies, archaeologists believe they may have an answer.<br /><br />A team of archaeologists from multiple universities in Germany, Denmark and <keyword id="19915592" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iran" source="keywords">Iran</keyword>, used ecological niche modeling and geographic information systems to map out where Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were likely living during the Late Pleistocene. They narrowed it down to the Persian Plateau’s <keyword id="23113135" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zagros" source="keywords">Zagros</keyword> Mountains — modern-day Iran, Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. With its warm climate, diverse animal life, and strategic location, it would have been an ideal spot for both groups to settle, hunt, and, well.. interact.<br /><br />The interbreeding likely occurred over several thousand years — roughly between 47,000 and 65,000 years ago. These events left a lasting imprint on us, with modern non-African humans carrying about 1-2% <keyword id="149748" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="neanderthal" source="Orion">Neanderthal</keyword> <keyword id="25384" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dna" source="Orion">DNA</keyword>. It seems the genes that stuck around were helpful, impacting traits like skin color and immune responses, which might have helped our ancestors adapt to new environments.<br />    <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="110805199" title="Humans and Neanderthals only had sex for a brief period, but it still fundamentally changed our DNA" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><h2>Why was Zagros so happening?</h2>There’s many reasons Zagros was the ideal place for this <keyword id="1252671" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="prehistoric" source="Orion">prehistoric</keyword> meet-cute. The region wasn’t just a Neanderthal haven with its varied biodiversity and topology; it was also right on the migration route that Homo sapiens took out of Africa. In other words, it would have been more surprising if the two groups <em>hadn’t</em> run into each other.<br /><br />Archaeological evidence supports this theory. The region is full of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthal skeletons, including the famous Neanderthal “flower burial,” which suggests this area was a significant gathering place for both species. Given the overlap in time and location, it seems highly likely that the two groups not only encountered each other but interbred, leaving a genetic legacy that still affects us today.<br />    <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="110138496" title="Did infection from human viruses contribute to the demise of Neanderthals 40,000 years ago?" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>So, while we may never know the exact moment of connection (or awkward small talk), we now have a better idea of <em>where</em> it likely happened — and why their shared genes continue to influence us today.<br /><br />The findings of this research have been published in <em>Scientific Reports</em> and can be accessed <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-70206-y">here</a>.<br /><br /><i>Editor's note: The story has been updated briefly after publishing to correct minor grammatical and language errors.</i><br />

Our ancestors bred with Neanderthals 50,000 years ago — here's where scientists think they did it

There is nothing that affects mental health quite like the combination of soaring inflation, a planet in decline, and ongoing wars; it's no wonder that mental health issues appear to be increasing in humans. However, there might be another hidden factor influencing the development of psychological disorders in us: our primitive instincts.<br /><br />The story of <keyword id="6420728" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="human" source="Orion">human</keyword> evolution is an intricate tapestry woven with a ton of interbreeding with other hominid species. Among these interactions, one stands out — an ancient meeting between modern humans and the Denisovans, an extinct subspecies of archaic humans who lived on Earth until at least 30,000 years ago.<br /><br />Most accounts suggest that modern humans left Africa around 60,000 years ago during the "Out-of-Africa" event, eventually encountering the <keyword id="4470534" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="denisovan" source="Orion">Denisovan</keyword>s in Asia. These interactions led to crossbreeding and the integration of Denisovan genetic material into the modern human genome.<br /><br />While this encounter may have been beneficial in some ways, recent research has also revealed how this ancient genetic legacy may have a lasting impact on the mental health of modern humans, including conditions like <keyword id="6354802" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="depression" source="Orion">depression</keyword> and <keyword id="11762" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="autism" source="Orion">autism</keyword>.<br /><br />A team of researchers, led by Elena Bosch and Rubén Vicente, has identified one of the most widespread remnants of Denisovan heritage in modern humans. This particular genetic adaptation helped early Homo sapiens populations adapt to cold climates and is related to the regulation of <keyword id="90405" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="zinc" source="Orion">zinc</keyword> in our bodies.<br /><br />Zinc is a crucial trace element for human health, playing a significant role in transmitting information within and between cells. Vicente's team found that the observed Denisovan genetic variant alters zinc balance within cells, changing our metabolism to help us better withstand harsh, cold environments.<br /><br />Zinc transport plays a vital role in the nervous system and overall mental health. However, the Denisovan genetic variant found in the zinc transporter is also linked to a higher susceptibility to various psychiatric disorders. These include widespread conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and bipolar disorder.<br /><br />Although the Denisovan genetic adaptation originated in Asia, it is not limited to a specific geographical region. This variant has spread to European and Native American populations and is now present worldwide. It is one of the most widespread adaptations inherited from the Denisovans, present in 4-6% of non-African modern humans.<br /><br />This intriguing discovery provides valuable insights into the complex history of our species and its potential impact on our well-being today. Future research, including studies using animal models, may help unravel the connection between this genetic legacy and mental health disorders, ultimately deepening our understanding of the human condition.<br /><br />The findings of this study have been published in PLOS <keyword id="6648078" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="genetics" source="Orion">Genetics</keyword> and can be accessed <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010950" data-type="tilCustomLink">here</a>.

Your mental illnesses may be a result of ancient cross-species fornication, a study has found

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Our human evolutionary lineage includes many species and relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.</li><li>Scientists already knew that modern humans <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/discoveries-change-picture-of-human-history-evolution-2020-01">interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans</a> 40,000 to 60,000 years ago.</li><li>But a new study reveals that the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans also interbred with a mysterious population of ancient humans in Eurasia much earlier: 700,000 years ago. </li><li>It's the earliest known example of mating between different human populations. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Our evolutionary history is full of inter-species sex.</p><p>Different human ancestor species seem to have mingled and mated far more than anthropologists previously realized. Neanderthals <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-humans-interbred-denisovans-twice-2018-3">interbred with modern humans</a>. Homo sapiens had sex with Denisovans. And 700,000 years ago, according to <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/8/eaay5483">a new study</a>, a population of ancient humans mated with a distinct, unknown population that had separated from other human species at least 1 million years prior.</p><p>"This continues the story that we've been seeing in studies throughout the past decade: There's lots more interbreeding between lots of human populations than we were aware of ever before," Alan Rodgers, an anthropologist and the lead author of the new study, told Business Insider. "This discovery has pushed the time depth of those interbreedings much farther back."</p><p>According to his team's research, published today in the journal Science Advances, the newly discovered interbreeding event took place in Eurasia, and it represents the earliest known example of mating between different populations of ancient humans.  </p><p>The analysis, which compared DNA from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans from Europe and Africa, lends further credence to the idea that the our ancestors' genes (and our own) came from myriad sources.</p><h2>The oldest episode of interbreeding in the anthropological record</h2><p>When geneticists finished sequencing the Neanderthal genome in 2010, they <a href="https://www.genome.gov/27539119/2010-release-complete-neanderthal-genome-sequenced">realized</a> that Neanderthals had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-humans-interbred-denisovans-twice-2018-3">interbred with modern humans</a> between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago. Then a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-humans-interbred-denisovans-twice-2018-3">2018 study</a> revealed that Denisovans - which disappeared about 50,000 years ago - passed on some of their genes to Homo sapiens.</p><p>But the interbreeding event that Rodgers and his colleagues found was far, far older. In that case, a group of humans who were ancestors of both Neanderthals and Denisovans (the study authors nicknamed them "neandersovans") interbred with their predecessor species about 744,000 years ago.</p><p>Those predecessors, in turn, were part of a"superarchaic" group in Eurasia that was between 20,000 and 50,000 people in size.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-humans-interbred-denisovans-twice-2018-3"></a></p><p>A major implication of the study, then, is that human populations migrated from Africa to Eurasia three times during our long evolutionary history: once 1.9 million years ago, again 700,000 years ago, and then a final time 50,000 years ago.</p><p>The first of these waves involved the "superarchaics." Then the neandersovans followed 700,000 years ago; they likely separated from the modern human lineage before they migrated north, the study suggests.</p><p>As that second wave of ancestors moved into Eurasia, the researchers wrote, they likely "interbred with indigenous Eurasians, largely replaced them, and separated into eastern and western subpopulations - Denisovans and Neanderthals."</p><p>Then many hundreds of thousands of years later, modern humans left Africa, interbreeding with Neanderthals - and eventually Denisovans, too - as they spread through Eurasia.</p><p>"These same events unfolded once again around 50,000 years ago as modern humans expanded out of Africa and into Eurasia, largely replacing the Neanderthals and Denisovans," the study authors wrote.</p><h2>A population of 'superarchaic humans'</h2><p>Rodgers' team's discovery came after they compared publicly available modern human DNA with ancient DNA. The analysis revealed at least four watershed moments in which genetic material passed from one human species to another over the last 1 million years. </p><p>Three of those moments matched the results other studies had already found. But the oldest instance was a new find. </p><p>In addition to representing the oldest evidence of human interbreeding on record, the finding is also surprising because but the two populations that mated were far less closely related than other human groups previously known to have interbred.</p><p>Whereas modern humans and Neanderthals had been on separate branches of the evolutionary tree for about 750,000 years when they interbred, the newly discovered population and the "neandersovans" had been separated for more than 1 million years.</p><p>Several mysteries remain, however. Rodgers' team isn't sure what ancient species the "superarchaic" population belonged to. All they know is that genetic evidence suggests the superarchaics separated from our human lineage about 2 million years ago, and that ancient humans were living in Eurasia at the time the species separation occurred.</p><p>"We've got fossil evidence of humans in Eurasia that dates back to 1.85 million years old," Rogers said.</p><p>At least two groups of human species, or taxa, lived in Eurasia during the time the superarchaics broke off from our lineage. One, Homo erectus, was the first of our ancestors to walk upright. The other possible taxon was Homo erectus' younger cousin, Homo antecessor, which inhabited modern-day Spain.</p><p>"Any of those taxa might be the superarchaics," Rodgers said. "Or they might be some taxon we don't know about yet."</p><p>But regardless of which group the superarchaics belonged to, Rodgers said, the new evidence of interbreeding offers a glimpse into an ancient time period that researchers know very little about.</p><p>"We're just shedding light on an interval on human evolutionary history that was previously completely dark," he said.</p>

Ancient humans interbred with a mysterious, archaic population 700,000 years ago, a study found - it's the earliest known mating between different human species

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>A remote island in the Arctic ocean northeast of Siberia was identified as the resting place of the world's last woolly mammoth population.</li><li>A new study shows that these island mammoths outlived their North American and European counterparts by some 7,000 years, before going abruptly extinct.</li><li>A genetic analysis reveals that these mammoths, on their isolated island, likely fell victim to inbreeding. This decreased the population's genetic diversity, and made them less able to adapt to possible natural disasters.</li><li>The research shows that the last of these animals died out <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-last-woolly-mammoths-went-extinct-2016-8">much later than scientists once thought</a>, at a time when the Egyptians had already built the pyramids at Giza.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>About 4,000 years ago on a remote island in the Arctic, the last woolly mammoth died out.</p><p>Elephantine in shape and size, mammoths (official name Mammuthus primigenius) dominated the northern hemisphere during Earth's last ice age for nearly 90,000 years, before changing climates and human hunting drove them to extinction.</p><p>Scientists have uncovered mammoth skeletons and frozen carcasses everywhere from Spain to Siberia, and the understanding was that these creatures had wholly disappeared by about 11,000 years ago.</p><p>But a handful of mammoth populations survived on two tiny, isolated islands nestled between Russia and Alaska that were cut-off from the mainland by rising seas. Researchers think one of these refuges, name Wrangel Island, became the last mammoth hold-out; these tusked giants outlived their North American and European counterparts by some 7,000 years before going abruptly extinct.</p><p>That means mammoths as a species lasted far longer than scientists previously thought. When the last woolly mammoth kicked the bucket, the Great Pyramid of Giza had already been built in Egypt.</p><p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379119301398?via%3Dihub">According to a new study</a>, published in the journal Quaternary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Reviews, the Wrangel Island inhabitants didn't die of the same causes as other mammoths. Rather, the study authors argue, the isolated animals started to inbreed, which weakened their genetic diversity. The weakened population was then unable to adapt to extreme weather events, which likely caused their sudden, untimely demise.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-last-woolly-mammoths-went-extinct-2016-8">Scientists think they finally know why the last woolly mammoths died out</a></em></p><p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></em></p><h2>A mysterious, 'fairly abrupt' extinction</h2><p>Wrangel Island is about 86 miles northeast of Chukotka, Siberia, a 3,000 square-mile chunk of land in the Chuckchi Sea that broke off from Asia about 10,000 years ago. The population of mammoths that went along for the ride were seemingly spared the global extinction of their species, until about 4,000 years ago when they all disappeared.</p><p>Radiocarbon dating of skeletons from Wrangel Island showed that the mammoth population's extinction was "fairly abrupt" without any warning signs, according to the study authors.</p><p>But the reason behind this sudden die-off wasn't clear.</p><p><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9310">A previous study</a> found that the mammoth inhabitants on the other similarly isolated island of St. Paul perished from environmental factors. That island, about 1,000 miles to the south of Wrangel Island in the heart of the Bering Sea, was only 42 square miles in size. By examining fossilized DNA, pollen, and spores, scientists discovered that the St. Paul mammoths had likely run out of fresh water as their tiny island dried up, before finally going extinct 5,600 years ago.</p><p>That story was reflected in the composition of the St. Paul mammoths' bones, which showed drops in certain types of elements just before the creatures went extinct.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h2>Looking for clues inside mammoth bones</h2><p>So the researchers behind the new study decided to look for the same telltale clues in the Wrangel mammoth bones to discern whether their island population had met the same fate.</p><p>They analyzed the collagen in 4,000-year-old mammoth bones and teeth from the island, and compared those results to bones from mammoths that had died in other parts of the world like Alaska and Siberia as old as 40,000 years ago.</p><p>The scientists were looking for drops in the levels of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotopes in the bones - which would indicate changes in the mammoths' diets due to environmental changes.</p><p>Their results showed that the compositions of the Wrangel Island fossils, unlike those of their mainland counterparts, had not changed as the climate warmed 10,000 years ago when the ice age ended and almost all the other mammoths worldwide went extinct.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Even just prior to their extinction, the Wrangel Island mammoth's bones showed no signs of dietary or environmental stress - meaning these creatures died off in the middle of unchanging, if not propitious, ecological conditions on an island that wasn't affected by changing climates.</p><p>In fact, the authors said their study shows that Wrangel Island "maintained environmental conditions suitable for a typical mammoth ecological niche ... possibly until the present day."</p><h2>So if a changing environment didn't kill them, what did?</h2><p>Given that it seemed unlikely the Wrangel Island mammoths died of thirst or climate change, the researchers sussed out other possible reasons behind the extinction.</p><p>It was unlikely that human hunting contributed to the sudden die-off, the authors wrote, because there's only a single site of human occupation on Wrangel Island, and archaeological evidence show the campsite was used for hunting marine mammals and geese. Plus, the site is dated several hundreds of years or so after the last mammoth disappeared.</p><p><a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(15)00420-0.pdf">A previous genetic analysis</a> of some of the Wrangel Island mammoths revealed that the creatures were interbreeding, which caused a severe loss in genetic diversity.</p><p>Another 2017 study revealed that the island population <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006601">had shrunk 43-fold compared to previous mainland mammoth population sizes</a> by the time it went extinct. The researcher also showed the mammoths had accumulated "detrimental" genetic mutations that diminished the population's ability to survive disease outbreaks, famines, or natural disasters that could cull large numbers at once.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Ultimately, the researchers still aren't sure what the smoking gun is, but "a short-term crisis" tops the list, they wrote.</p><p>"It's easy to imagine that the population, perhaps already weakened by genetic deterioration ... could have succumbed after something like an extreme weather event," Hervé Bocherens, a co-author of the new study, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/uoh-tlm100419.php">said in a press release</a>.</p><p>One of Bocherens and his colleagues' suggestions was a rain-on-snow event - during which an impenetrable layer of ice freezes on top of the snowpack - that prevented the mammoths from grazing on the vegetation they needed to survive.</p><p>In October 2003, a severe rain-on-snow event <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2009EO260002">killed 20,000 musk-oxen</a> on Banks Island in northern Canada, reducing the herd by 25%. Thousands of reindeer on present-day Wrangel Island have perished from similar icing episodes in the past century, <a href="http://ncr-journal.bear-land.org/uploads/2665641c88e573852b30e381f0d2c25f.pdf">according to a 2018 study</a>.</p><p>"These events can be catastrophic to the population and appear to occur fairly often," Bocherens and his co-authors concluded.</p><p>Perhaps rain-on-snow killed off the last mammoth, too.</p>

A new study reveals how the last woolly mammoths died out 4,000 years ago. That's after the Egyptians had built the pyramids.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Prakash Hatvalne</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The traditional origin story for modern humans says that early groups migrated out of Africa 60,000 years ago.</strong></li><li><strong>Most non-Africans can trace their origin to those migrations, but new evidence suggests that humans actually migrated out of Africa as far back as 120,000 years ago.</strong></li><li><strong>Those early groups may have brought tools and culture with them, and they interbred with other hominin species that existed at the time.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Tens of thousands of years ago, the first <em>Homo sapiens</em> - modern humans - started to cross mountains, deserts, and even oceans to leave Africa, where our species first evolved, and populate Asia and Australia.</p><p>The traditional understanding has been that this "Out of Africa" movement, as it's often referred to, happened approximately 60,000 years ago. Researchers still agree that most present day non-Africans trace the majority of their lineage to the large migration that occurred then.</p><p>But several recent discoveries have found evidence that humans started migrating into Asia as far back as 120,000 years ago. These early migrants interbred with other hominin species that existed at the time, including Neanderthals and Denisovans. Genetic traces of those early migrant groups can still be found today.</p><p>This new information has challenged the previous understanding of human migration to the point that it needs to be revised, according to a <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6368/eaai9067">new review of research</a> published in the journal <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword>.</p><p>"The initial dispersals out of Africa prior to 60,000 years ago were likely by small groups of foragers, and at least some of these early dispersals left low-level genetic traces in modern human populations," Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and an author of the study, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/mpif-rts120117.php">said in a press release</a>. "A later, major 'Out of Africa' event most likely occurred around 60,000 years ago or thereafter."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bae et al. 2017. On the origin of modern humans: Asian perspectives. Science. Image by: Katerina Douka and Michelle O'Reilly</span></p><p class="caption">Map of sites and postulated migratory pathways associated with modern humans dispersing across Asia during the Late Pleistocene.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Rethinking the human origin story</h2><p>The recent studies evaluated in this new review all suggest that the story of how humans spread throughout the world is more complex than researchers had thought.</p><p>The first fossils of what we'd consider "modern humans" based on physical characteristics date back close to 200,000 years. In the Horn of Africa, archaeologists have found remains of <em>Homo sapiens</em> at least 195,000 years old. </p><p>According to the older model, behaviors like the use of tools were thought to have been brought from Africa 60,000 years ago and spread north and east.</p><p>But some of these recent discoveries show that "modern" behaviors like blade use, deep-sea fishing, and cave art existed around the world before that major migration, and in some cases were associated with populations from other hominin species. Earlier dispersals of <em>Homo sapiens </em>and interbreeding with other populations may have helped spread some of these behaviors.</p><p>That also helps explain why today, non-Africans have between 1-4% Neanderthal heritage and why modern residents of Melanesia have approximately 5% Denisovan heritage. These early hominin groups mixed together and spread genetic material and culture amongst each other.</p><p>"Indeed, what we are seeing in the behavioral record is that the spread of so-called modern human behaviors did not occur in a simple time-transgressive process from west to east," Christopher Bae of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, lead author of the study, said in the press release.<span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dan-harris-explains-how-meditation-helps-depression-2015-12">Doing this for 5 minutes every day can help people who suffer from depression</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

You Searched For "interbreeding events" and got 6 results

Modern humans mated with Denisovans several times in history and it gave us some surprising superpowers!

BI India Bureau

Our ancestors bred with Neanderthals 50,000 years ago — here's where scientists think they did it

Ankush Banerjee

Your mental illnesses may be a result of ancient cross-species fornication, a study has found

Ankush Banerjee

Ancient humans interbred with a mysterious, archaic population 700,000 years ago, a study found - it's the earliest known mating between different human species

Aylin Woodward

A new study reveals how the last woolly mammoths died out 4,000 years ago. That's after the Egyptians had built the pyramids.

Aylin Woodward

Early human ancestors started migrating around the world far earlier than scientists thought

Kevin Loria

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides