A recent discovery has revealed surprising clues about the Neanderthals who lived in France. An ancient Neanderthal lineage, isolated for more than 50,000 years, has been identified by French and Danish researchers.
In Mandrin Cave in the Drôme region, Ludovic Slimak's team uncovered a fragment of jawbone and phalanges dating from 42,000 to 45,000 years ago. But that's not all: genetic analysis of these remains, published in
Cell Genomics, revealed an unknown lineage, nicknamed "Thorin."
According to Ludovic Slimak, this Neanderthal likely lived on the fringes of other groups, with no genetic contact with other Neanderthal populations for 50,000 years. This lack of genetic mixing is seen by scientists as a potential reason for their extinction.
Analyses also indicate that Thorin belonged to a population of Neanderthals whose lineage diverged around 100,000 years ago from that of other known Neanderthals, such as those from Gibraltar. This discovery challenges the idea of Neanderthal genetic homogeneity at that time.
For some researchers, the prolonged isolation of Thorin and his peers, far from other populations, could hold the key to their demise. Slimak's team believes this phenomenon is due to a lack of cultural and biological exchanges over tens of thousands of years.
To better understand this isolation, further studies on the unearthed bones and additional genome sequencing are necessary. Such a discovery could broaden our understanding of human evolution and the interactions between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
However, at this stage, these revelations raise more questions than answers. While the hypotheses put forward are intriguing, they have yet to be confirmed.
For Ludovic Slimak, this is a groundbreaking discovery. The researcher calls for a reconsideration of the relationships between early Homo sapiens and isolated Neanderthal populations, which may have coexisted without significant interbreeding.
Article author: Cédric DEPOND