<p><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/tag/Cro-Magnon/" title="">Cro-Magnon</a> people and <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/tag/Neanderthals/" title="">Neanderthals</a> may have shared their European habitat from 45,000 to 30,000 years ago, but new evidence suggests that they didn't get more intimate than that. Italian researchers sequenced <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/tag/mitochondrial-dna/" title="">mitochondrial DNA</a> from Cro-Magnon bones dating from 28,000 years ago and found no trace of Neanderthal DNA, suggesting that the two early hominids did not interbreed to create modern humans. The fate of the Neanderthals, who vanish from the fossil record around 30,000 years ago, has been fiercely debated.</p><div class="vert-display-toggle collapsible relative flex flex-col items-center "><div class="vert-unit mt-4 mb-3 top-20"><div ad-type="mobile-desktop" class="ad-wrapper vert min-h-boombox flex items-start justify-center" data-ad-mapping="inline" data-ad-slot="Discover/inline-ad" id="div-inline-ad-0"></div></div><span aria-label="Advertisement" class="text-ad mt-1 text-[11px] uppercase">Advertisement</span></div><p> One theory, known as the Out of Africa hypothesis, holds that modern humans, whose ancestors had recently migrated from Africa, drove the Neandertals extinct, possibly through warfare, disease, or cognitive advantage. But the competing multiregional hypothesis argues that Neandertals and modern humans interbred and that Neandertals were absorbed into our gene pool [<a href="http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/716/1" title=""><em>ScienceNow Daily News</em></a>]. </p><p>The new study, published in the journal <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002700" title="">PLoS ONE</a>, supports the extinction theory. Lead researcher Guido Barbujani has tried to make this case before: </p><div data-embedid="dcfb67aa-fdf4-4a19-b4c7-75c497a8de9c" id="insticator-embed-temp"></div><p>His team published similar findings in 2003, but that study left open the possibility that the Cro-Magnon DNA had been contaminated by the researchers' own genes. Now, Barbujani's team has sequenced a section of DNA from everyone who handled the sample and found no trace of contamination. "We knew we had a full and complete list of people who had potentially contaminated the specimen," he says. "In this case we are really sure that that sequence does not represent contamination" [<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14325-first-europeans-shunned-neanderthal-sex.html" title="">New Scientist</a>]. </p><p><em>Image: flickr/</em><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/brighton/1814374528/" title="">JL2003</a></p>

New research shows Cro-Magnon people and Neanderthals did not interbreed, supporting the extinction theory of Neanderthals.

Planet Earth

More Evidence That Our Cro-Magnon Ancestors Shunned Neanderthals

Article

News

Eliza Strickland

Science

Cro-Magnon people and Neanderthals may have shared their European habitat from 45,000 to 30,000 years ago, but new evidence suggests that they didn't get more intimate than that. Italian researchers sequenced mitochondrial DNA from Cro-Magnon bones dating from 28,000 years ago and found no trace of Neanderthal DNA, suggesting that the two early hominids did not interbreed to create modern humans. The fate of the Neanderthals, who vanish from the fossil record around 30,000 years ago, has been fiercely debated. One theory, known as the Out of Africa hypothesis, holds that modern humans, whose ancestors had recently migrated from Africa, drove the Neandertals extinct, possibly through warfare, disease, or cognitive advantage. But the competing multiregional hypothesis argues that Neandertals and modern humans interbred and that Neandertals were absorbed into our gene pool [ScienceNow Daily News]. The new study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, supports the extinction theory. Lead researcher Guido Barbujani has tried to make this case before: His team published similar findings in 2003, but that study left open the possibility that the Cro-Magnon DNA had been contaminated by the researchers' own genes. Now, Barbujani's team has sequenced a section of DNA from everyone who handled the sample and found no trace of contamination. "We knew we had a full and complete list of people who had potentially contaminated the specimen," he says. "In this case we are really sure that that sequence does not represent contamination" [New Scientist]. Image: flickr/JL2003

Discover Magazine’s award-winning journalism inspires and informs, delivering thought-provoking content that sparks meaningful conversations. With a focus on groundbreaking developments in science, technology, and the world around us, Discover highlights the impact of these innovations on our daily lives.

更多证据表明我们的克鲁马뇽祖先排斥尼安德特人

新闻简报

Eliza Strickland

复活节岛的摩艾石像不是用木板或滚轮运输的——它们是“走”过去的

泰国发现新的科学怪人蜘蛛，一半雄性一半雌性

大约675年前，秃鹫在巢中藏匿了凉鞋和其他考古文物

动物根据光照条件和捕食者行为选择隐藏或炫耀其颜色

我们的史前祖先可能像今天的一些灵长类动物一样以蘑菇为食

这种动物母亲是唯一有记录的产下非同种后代的个体

频繁的火山喷发可以消灭植物物种，但也有助于它们进化和繁荣

鲨鱼在4亿年前作为深海底层居民开始在海洋中漫游

已灭绝的腔棘鱼化石在一个多世纪里面临着身份被误认的情况

这种无眼鱼的进化帮助我们确定洞穴开始形成的时间

侏儒海马失去了长吻，这使它们存活了1800万年

长颈鹿脖子长且有斑点，而且显然是四个独立的物种

大白鲨的DNA差异引发了一个未解之谜

多刺的星形生物表明深海是一条“连通的高速公路”

在为蚁后加冕时，一切都取决于遗传

保持好奇

加入我们的列表

订阅杂志