Infographic: History of Ancient Hominin Interbreeding

See when and where our ancestors may have interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Written byJef Akst
| 3 min read

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Some 350,000 or more years ago, the group of hominins that would evolve to become Neanderthals and Denisovans left Africa for Eurasia.

A few hundred millennia later, about 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern non-Africans followed a similar path out of Africa and began interbreeding with these other hominin groups. Researchers estimate that much of the Neanderthal DNA in modern human genomes came from interbreeding events that took place around 50,000 to 55,000 years ago in the Middle East. Thousands of years later, humans moving into East Asia interbred with Denisovans.

The 50,000- to 65,000-year-old remains of a Neanderthal in Vindija Cave, Croatia, gave researchers their first look at the Neanderthal genetic code.

The genome of a 40,000-year-old human whose remains were unearthed in Romania harbored 6–9 percent Neanderthal DNA.

Teeth dating to some 80,000 years ago yield DNA from a Denisovan individual ...

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  • Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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September 2019

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