In:
Nature, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 610, No. 7932 ( 2022-10-20), p. 519-525
Abstract:
Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans 1–8 , but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave 9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave 11 —making this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya individuals were closely related, including a father–daughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the individuals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these individuals’ genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome diversity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial diversity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0028-0836
,
1476-4687
DOI:
10.1038/s41586-022-05283-y
Language:
English
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
120714-3
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1413423-8
SSG:
11
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