Recent research has unveiled genetic insights from 27 Neanderthals residing in Belgium and France, approximately 52,500 years ago, offering a deeper understanding of how our closest relatives organized their lives before their extinction.
Neanderthal reconstruction. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.
Neanderthals inhabited Europe and western Asia for a span ranging from approximately 430,000 to 40,000 years ago.
The high-quality nuclear genomes of four Neanderthals have unveiled significant insights into their diversity, population history, and interactions with early modern humans.
More recent Neanderthals from Croatia, dating back 45,000 years, exhibited greater genetic diversity and less evidence of recent inbreeding compared to older Neanderthals from the Denisova and Chagyrskaya caves, which are 120,000, 110,000, and 60,000 years old, respectively.
Furthermore, low coverage of the nuclear genomes from the four late Neanderthals suggests a close genetic similarity among individuals from distant regions, such as Mezmaiskaya in the Caucasus and Les Côtés in France, hinting at potential long-distance connections among late Neanderthals.
Alba Bossams-Mesa, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, stated, “Until now, we had only four high-quality Neanderthal genomes and limited low-quality genomes, making it challenging to address key questions about Neanderthal regional diversity.”
“By generating genetic data from multiple individuals in present-day Belgium and France, we can now more thoroughly investigate late Neanderthal populations.”
In a groundbreaking study, Bossoms Mesa and her team recovered genetic material from 26 Neanderthals in Belgium and France.
They also sequenced a high-quality genome from a 45,000-year-old Neanderthal male discovered in Belgium’s Goyet Cave, marking it as the fifth detailed Neanderthal genome ever produced.
While prior studies of Neanderthals from the Altai region of Siberia indicated signs of interbreeding among kin, Belgian Neanderthals showed no such genetic traits.
The research further revealed that most Neanderthals in Belgium and France were more closely related to one another than to their contemporaneous counterparts in other European regions, indicating distinct regional populations that maintained broader connections across the continent.
Dr. Benjamin Peter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology noted, “Our findings suggest that situations observed in one locale cannot be universally applied to all Neanderthals.”
“Late Neanderthals from northwestern Europe seemed to belong to an interconnected regional population, rather than a small, isolated group that frequently interbred among close kin.”
Despite modern humans arriving in the region approximately 47,000 years ago, no traces of recent human DNA were detected in the Neanderthal genome.
“Our results highlight a notable asymmetry,” Bossams-Mesa added.
“While we consistently find that early modern humans carry Neanderthal ancestry, there is currently no clear evidence that late Neanderthals possessed any recent modern human lineage.”
Scientists also explored the hypothesis that Neanderthals gradually weakened due to accumulating genetic defects.
Comparative studies between early and late Neanderthals indicated no significant rise in harmful mutations over time, challenging the idea that genetic deterioration led to their extinction.
The ultimate factors determining the fate of Neanderthals remain an open question.
This study, however, demonstrates that the last few millennia in northwestern Europe were not characterized by biological collapse.
Dr. Janet Kelso from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology emphasized, “This study underscores the potential of ancient DNA to uncover variations within Neanderthals at a finer scale than previously achievable.”
“Rather than regarding Late Neanderthals as a single population facing decline, we are beginning to appreciate a more intricate picture of regional diversity, connectivity, and population history.”
Further details can be found in the study featured in this week’s issue of Nature.
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A. Bossams Mesa et al. Genetic diversity of late Neanderthals in northwest Europe. Nature, published online June 24, 2026. doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10625-1
Source: www.sci.news