They lived from 400,000
years ago to 40,000 years ago, plus or minus, in an area from Western Europe to
Western Asia. They evolved from a common ancestor of both Neanderthals
and modern humans.
A few hundred thousand
years later, Homo Sapiens, modern humans, spread north out of Africa.
There is evidence that modern humans arrived in Neanderthal territory 54,000
years ago. That’s a late arrival to that area by modern humans; they were
spreading out north and east out of Africa long before that. Maybe they
were dissuaded from advancing further into what is now southern Europe by the
well-established population of Neanderthals that was already there. When
homo sapiens finally did move into Neanderthal territory, there was no
immediate replacement. They lived side by side for at least 14,000
years. That’s not very long in geologic time, but that’s a very long time
to be next door neighbors.
Ultimately, Neanderthals
dwindled while Homo Sapiens increased. The population of Neanderthals was
never very high. In all that time, 350,000 years, it’s thought that their
population never exceeded 100,000. Neanderthals are gone now, but as a
result of being neighbors for so long with Homo Sapiens, there was some
breeding between species. We know this because the entire human genome
has been sequenced, and Neanderthal DNA has been recovered from artifacts and
sequenced as well. Genetic studies comparing the two show that a small
bit of Neanderthal DNA, in the range of 1% or 2%, survives in most Homo Sapiens
today. Ironically, add up that tiny bit of Neanderthal DNA in the
billions of modern humans alive today, and it calculates to way more Neanderthal
DNA in circulation now than there ever was while they were still around as a
separate species.
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