Neanderthal family life revealed by ancient DNA from Siberian cave

[Judi Lynn]

2. Evrim Yazginshows that our closest human cousins probably lived in small groups

20 October 2022

New findings shed light on the social organisation of Neanderthals.

New research is bringing to life for the first time a description of the social organisation and small community dynamics of Neanderthals.

Neanderthals were our closest human cousins, but up until now we’ve not known much about how they lived and their social relations.

The research published in Nature and led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, is based on DNA analysis of 13 Neanderthal individuals from two caves in Russia.

Neanderthals lived in western Eurasia from around 430,000 years ago before going extinct around 40,000 years ago, not long after Homo sapiens (modern humans) arrived in Europe from Africa. There is still debate about what exactly caused the extinction of Neanderthals, but new theories appear to counter the old idea that direct confrontation between Neanderthals and our modern human ancestors led to their demise.

More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/neanderthal-genetics-small-groups/