Neanderthals, just like humans, too they lived in communities, cultivated their traditions and shared their lives with their loved ones. Much has been written about the life of these extinct hominids with whom we lived tens of thousands of years ago, but what exactly do we know about the type of life these prehistoric beings led? What were their families like and, above all, what kind of relationships did they have with their peers? This Wednesday, the magazine ‘Nature’ publishes the first genetic portrait of one neanderthal family and reveal a unprecedented story of incest y migrations among our extinct relatives.
The study, led by researchers from the Max Plank Institute, presents a genetic analysis of 13 Neanderthal individuals whose remains were found in two caves in southern Siberia (the Chagyrskaya site and the Okladnikov site). This analysis assumes, by itself, a milestone in the study of Neanderthals. From 2010 until now, the genes of only 18 individuals of this species had been sequenced. The newly published research adds more than a dozen genetic portraits to understand the life and evolution of these hominids. It also provides unpublished data that allow us to glimpse what could have been the coexistence between Neanderthals.
The Neanderthal family that stars in this study lived about 54,000 years ago in the lands we now know as Siberia. Its history has been reconstructed thanks to 14 years of research and the discovery of more than 80 bone fragments y about 90,000 stone artifacts. As explained by those responsible for this study, we are facing one of the largest sets of Neanderthal fossils ever found to date. It is also the first time that individuals of this species that are related to each other have been analysed. Hence, the history explained by these genes shows an unprecedented portrait of the lives of these hominids.
a prehistoric family
This Neanderthal family consisted of seven men and six women, of which there were eight adults and five children. Among them there was a father and his teenage daughter and at least two second degree relatives: a boy and an adult woman with whom he shared 25% of his genes, so it is believed that he could have been your cousin, your aunt or your grandmother. Analysis of a genetic variant known as heteroplasmy, which only persists for a small number of generations, suggests that these individuals must have lived at the same time. That is, they were not only relatives but also contemporaries.
“This is the first time that we can use genetics to study the social organization of Neanderthals”
“The fact that they were living at the same time is very exciting. This means that they probably come from the same community. It is the first time that we can use genetics to study the social organization of Neanderthals”, explains the researcher Laurits Forestexpert at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and first author of this study.”
According to the analysis, everything indicates that these Neanderthals were descendants of European populations (from Germany or Eastern Europe) who migrated to the north of the continent. They were not related to the Denisovans, the mysterious hominids found in Siberian lands. The fossil remains found in the Chagyrskaya cave show a series of routines and customs of this prehistoric family. these neanderthals hunted mountain goats, horses, bison and other animals that swarmed the area. They also traveled tens of kilometers around in search of raw material to make their stone tools.
Incest and migrations
One of the most surprising findings of this study is the history of incest in the family. According to the researchers who have led this study, the genetic analysis of these Neanderthal individuals points to a surprisingly low genetic diversity among members of this family. “It is much lower than recorded in any other ancient or current human community. In fact, it is more similar to what happens between animals on the verge of extinction“, says the study.
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Another unpublished fact about the life of the Neanderthals has to do with the migrations of individuals. The experts explain that in the analyzed family there was more mitochondrial genetic diversity (characteristic transmitted by the mothers) than diversity of the Y chromosome (transmitted by the paternal line). This suggests that women were the ones who migrated the most within the Neanderthal family.
“All this information makes Neanderthals seem much more human to me”
“This study provides a concrete picture of what a Neanderthal community might have been like,” explains Benjamin Peter, one of the authors of the just published study. “All this information makes Neanderthals seem much more human to me“, concludes the expert.