110k-Year-Old Neanderthal Genome Shows Isolated Groups
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- D17 – a male Neanderthal from Denisova Cave, dated ~110,000 years ago, yielded a high‑coverage genome (average 37×) that reconstructs most of his DNA with high accuracy.
- Researchers – identified long stretches of homozygosity in D17’s genome, indicating his parents were closely related (possibly first cousins) and implying the individual lived in a very small, isolated population.
- Altai Neanderthals – were found to be genetically more similar to the older Neanderthal from the same Denisova Cave than to western Neanderthals, showing distinct regional groups.
- Genetic differences – between eastern (Altai) and western Neanderthals are as large as, or larger than, those among the most genetically distinct modern human populations today.
- Study – concludes that Altai Neanderthals lived in smaller, more isolated groups than later western Neanderthals, causing allele‑frequency changes to accumulate faster than in larger populations.
- Paper – was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2026, providing new evidence of early population structure among Neanderthals.
Why it matters: The finding reshapes our understanding of Neanderthal demography, showing that small, isolated groups could evolve quickly, which challenges the view that Neanderthals were a relatively homogenous species. Paleoanthropologists gain new insights into population structure, while models of human evolution must account for rapid regional divergence.
