Neanderthal-Denisovan ancestors interbred with a distantly related hominin

Author

Alan R. Rogers
Nathan S. Harris
Alan A. Achenbach

Files

Publication Date

February 2020

Abstract

Previous research has shown that modern Eurasians interbred with their Neanderthal and Denisovan predecessors. We show here that hundreds of thousands of years earlier, the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred with their own Eurasian predecessors—members of a “superarchaic” population that separated from other humans about 2 million years ago. The superarchaic population was large, with an effective size between 20 and 50 thousand individuals. We confirm previous findings that (i) Denisovans also interbred with superarchaics, (ii) Neanderthals and Denisovans separated early in the middle Pleistocene, (iii) their ancestors endured a bottleneck of population size, and (iv) the Neanderthal population was large at first but then declined in size. We provide qualified support for the view that (v) Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of modern humans.

Keywords

Neanderthal-Denisovan, Neanderthal-Denivoan Ancestors, Interbred, Distantly Related Hominin, Hominin

Document Type

Article

Notes

Science Advances, Vol. 6, no. 8 (2020-02-20).

Identifier

K26-05152

Recommended Citation

Rogers, Alan R.; Harris, Nathan S.; and Achenbach, Alan A., "Neanderthal-Denisovan ancestors interbred with a distantly related hominin" (2020). KIP Articles. 3486.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/3486