Earliest DNA Evidence of Neanderthals ID'd

It turns out that the inhabitants living in a Spanish cave some 400,000 years ago were actually Neanderthals.

That is a fresh twist on a long-running mystery over the origins of these 28 hominins from Sima de Los Huesos in northern Spain. Initially, researchers in 2013 showed that their maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA was distantly related to Denisovans, extinct relatives of Neanderthals in Asia who lived in Siberia and apparently elsewhere in Asia.

But the finding stirred up quite a debate, since the skeletal remains carry Neanderthal-derived features.

Ancient Human With 10 Percent Neanderthal Genes Found

Now, researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology managed to sequence nuclear DNA from fossils from the cave.

Related: Oldest Human DNA Ever Is Found In Spain, Poses More Questions Than Answers

"Sima de los Huesos is currently the only non-permafrost site that allow us to study DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene, the time period preceding 125,000 years ago," Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and lead author of a study on the findings in Nature, said in a statement.

"The recovery of a small part of the nuclear genome from the Sima de los Huesos hominins is not just the result of our continuous efforts in pushing for more sensitive sample isolation and genome sequencing technologies", Meyer adds. "This work would have been much more difficult without the special care that was taken during excavation."

The researchers credited the breakthrough with advances in analyzing DNA.

Iceman Mummy 20 Yrs On: Mysteries Remain

"We have hoped for many years that advances in molecular analysis techniques would one day aid our investigation of this unique assembly of fossils," Juan-Luis Arsuaga of the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, who has led the excavations at Sima de los Huesos for three decades. "We have thus removed some of the specimens with clean instruments and left them embedded in clay to minimize alterations of the material that might take place after excavation."

The nuclear DNA sequences recovered from two specimens demonstrated that Neanderthal evolutionary lineage are more closely related to Neandertals than to Denisovans. This finding indicates that the population divergence between Denisovans and Neanderthals had already occurred by 430,000 years ago when the Sima de los Huesos hominins lived.

"These results provide important anchor points in the timeline of human evolution," Svante Pääbo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said. "They are consistent with a rather early divergence of 550,000 to 750,000 years ago of the modern human lineage from archaic humans."

This originally appeared on FoxNews.com/Science. More:

Origins of human language between 400,000 and 2 mn years old, experts say Oldest Human DNA Ever Is Found In Spain, Poses More Questions Than Answers 100 million-year-old scorpion found preserved in amber

This skull came from the Sima de los Huesos site. Scientists have identified the oldest "nuclear DNA" from bones at this site.

Humans Vs. Neanderthals: How Did We Win?

Aug. 9, 2011 --

Up until about 30,000 years ago, humans shared the planet with Neanderthals, a relative so close to humans that our species interbred. In fact, some Neanderthal lives on in some of our DNA to this day. But around then, Homo sapiens were already well into the process of displacing Neanderthals, an undertaking that had been some 20,000 to 40,000 years in the making. How humans outpaced their relatives remains a mystery, but fossil evidence has left some clues about the scenarios that may have led to the downfall of Neanderthals. No single smoking gun is likely responsible for the disappearance of Homo neanderthalensis. Here, we explore some of the factors that likely contributed to their decline.

Outnumbered

In the end, Neanderthals may have been wiped out because they simply lost the numbers game. As Homo sapiens moved from Africa into areas of southern Europe where Neanderthals had already been settled, the two species were placed in direct competition with one another. Eventually outnumbered 10 to one, Neanderthals were pushed to less favorable areas where food and shelter were more difficult to find, according to a study published last month in the journal Science. Resource competition and interbreeding wiped out the Neanderthals in this scenario.

Forced into Cannibalism?

With Homo sapiens pushing Neanderthals to fringe settlements, it’s possible that resource competition between Neanderthal groups forced them to turn to cannibalism. Fossil evidence suggests that may have been the case. Bones discovered in a cave in France show a group of Neanderthals defleshed the bones of others within their species for sustenance. They even ate humans. As grisly as the practice was, cannibalism also took a hidden toll on those who hunted and consumed their own species: a fatal epidemic similar to mad cow disease that caused severe mental impairments and wiped out thousands. These series of events could have contributed to the disappearance of Homo neanderthalensis.

The Fitter Specimen

In a battle of the brawn, Neanderthals would surely come out ahead. But in a footrace over a long distance, humans had the advantage. Humans were built for long-distance running, which allowed for hunting in hotter climates. Neanderthals, on the other hand, were strong and sturdy. They could run faster than humans, but only over a short sprint. As such, Homo neanderthalensis was better equipped for cooler climates. Distance-running and endurance could have given prehistoric Homo sapiens an edge when they entered Neanderthal strongholds in Asia and Europe, and came into direct competition with their cousins.

The Big Bang Theory

Neanderthals may not have quietly faded away so much as they went out with a bang, according to a study published last September in Current Anthropology. Around 40,000 years ago, a sequence of three major volcanic eruptions devastated Neanderthal homelands in Europe and Asia, speeding the demise of this species. Homo sapiens, by contrast, lived on the fringes beyond the range of the volcanic ash clouds. In other words, simple geographic luck could have led early humans to overtake Neanderthals.

Brain Power

Neaderthals had brawn, but early humans had a leg up on brains. Starting at birth, human and Neanderthal brains are similar. During the first year of life, however, the human brain begins more activity in neural circuitry. Although this doesn't mean that Neanderthals weren't as intelligent as humans, the brains of Homo sapiens developed to support higher-order functions, such as creativity and communication. Traces of Neanderthal creativity have been found, but no evidence has yet emerged to show they had a complex language of their own. However, according to one study published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, this lack of cognitive complexity also may have meant that Neanderthals didn't suffer from the same mental disorders as humans. This distinction, however, proved to be a net gain for humans and may have "helped early Homo sapiens survive in the process of natural selection," according to one report.

Humans Weren't to Blame

Neanderthals and humans were not in direct competition for too long, because Neanderthals disappeared earlier than once thought, according to one study published in May of this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, In this scenario, Neanderthals disappeared around 39,700 years ago -- 10,000 years earlier than is commonly believed. Since Homo sapiens arrived in the northern Caucasus region a few hundred years earlier, that didn't leave too much time for the two species to interact. This theory discounts any human intervention in the decline of Neanderthal populations, but still leaves open the possibility of other extinction scenarios.