John Hawks - Who were the ancestors of the Neanderthals?

John Hawks - Who were the ancestors of the Neanderthals?

Part of #NEANDERTHAL: The Conference which was organised by the Gibraltar National Museum from 13th to 15th September 2018 at the University of Gibraltar.

The last 10 years have transformed the evidence concerning the early origins and evolution of Neanderthal populations. Genetic comparisons of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancient DNA suggest that the common ancestor of these populations separated from African ancestors of modern humans prior to 600,000 years ago, followed by a rapid differentiation in Eurasia. Later, additional episodes of gene flow brought genes into Neanderthal populations, including the mtDNA clade carried by all later Neanderthals. Yet, a number of western Eurasian fossil samples from the time between 600,000 and 100,000 years ago are difficult to accommodate within the category of “Neanderthals”, including European (e.g., Mala Balanica, Vértesszöllös, Bilzingleben, Ceprano) and Levantine (e.g., Qesem, Zuttiyeh) remains. In the pre-genomic framework, such samples would often have been described as generalized possible ancestors of Neanderthals, but it now appears that they may represent diverse populations that stem from deeper ancestors shared with Neanderthals and modern humans. Who were these deep ancestors of Neanderthals? This presentation weighs the known possibilities, including Homo antecessor, archaic African populations, a strict Homo heidelbergensis based upon the Mauer mandible, and Homo erectus.

© Gibraltar National Museum, 2018