As if Neanderthals weren’t already mysterious enough, groundbreaking research is adding a surprising new layer to our understanding of their final moments. Some populations appear to have lived in complete genetic and social isolation for more than 50,000 years.

The study, carried out on specimens found in Mandolin Cave in France on the Mediterranean coast, revealed a “ghost lineage” that suggests Neanderthals were much more fragmented than we had imagined.

Mandolin Cave Neanderthal

The Mandolin Cave in southern France has long been a treasure trove for archaeologists. It contains multiple sedimentary layers spanning tens of thousands of years, preserving the history of Neanderthals and humans. early modern man. During the excavation of the site in 2015, an amazing discovery was made. neanderthal man Commonly known as “Thorin”.

The name is a direct reference to Tolkien’s character Thorin Oakenshield, “King Under the Mountain” and leader of the ancient Refugees. Lead researcher Ludovic Slimak chose the name to reflect the individual’s status as a remnant of a vanishing ancient world, one of the last bloodlines that refused to change.

Thorin’s remains, which include skull and tooth fragments, date back approximately 50,000 years. The rich archaeological context of this site provided evidence that Thorin lived during the last millennia of Neanderthal existence. But this discovery wasn’t the only thing that piqued researchers’ interest. What made this discovery particularly important was the genetic data recovered from his teeth, which tells a remarkable story of isolation.

“The Thorin population went 50,000 years without exchanging genes with other Neanderthal populations,” said Thorin co-lead author and discoverer Ludovic Slimak and Paul Sabatier, a CNRS researcher at the University of Toulouse III.

The residents did not live far from other residents, Slimak said.

“There are 500,000 years of coexistence between two Neanderthal groups living about 10 days’ walk away, completely ignoring each other. This is unimaginable to Sapiens, and it makes clear that Neanderthals must have viewed our world biologically in a completely different way than we Sapiens do.”

It was shocking that the data seemed to be wrong.

Thorin was found in the same geological formations as other objects and structures from 40,000 to 45,000 years ago, which archaeologists estimated was also Thorin’s age. However, genetic data suggested that Thorin was very different from the Neanderthals who lived at that time, and suggested that this person more closely resembled the genomes of Neanderthals who lived more than 100,000 years ago.

“We worked for seven years to find out who was wrong: the archaeologists and the genomicists,” Slimak says.

To solve this, researchers used isotopic analysis of Thorin’s teeth to track the climate in which the individual lived. The results confirmed that he lived in a cold late glacial climate. This proves that Thorin is a “late Neanderthal” with the genome of an “early Neanderthal.”

“This genome is a remnant of part of the earliest Neanderthal population in Europe,” said lead author Martin Sikora, a population geneticist at the University of Copenhagen. “The lineage leading to Thorin would have split from the lineage leading to other late Neanderthals about 105,000 years ago.”

50,000 years of solitude

The shocking implication of this is that the inhabitants of Thorin spent 50,000 years in complete isolation.

Even though Thorin’s group lived in the same cave systems inhabited by early Homo sapiens and later “progressive” Neanderthals, they displayed deep cultural conservatism. They did not trade, adopt new tool technologies, or interact with “outsider” groups.

Traditionally, Neanderthal extinction theory They have focused on external factors such as climate change, volcanic eruptions, and competition with modern humans. However, the genetic isolation of Neanderthal groups raises the possibility that internal factors also played an important role. The lack of interbreeding with other Neanderthal groups and early modern humans may have eventually posed an existential threat.

The discovery suggests that by the time Thorin was alive, multiple genetically distinct Neanderthal populations were scattered across Europe. Although these populations were culturally and geographically close, they may have been genetically isolated, indicating the complex population structure of late Neanderthals. Why didn’t they breed at all for a long time? It could be a geographical barrier. climate changebut it’s also possible that it was social behavior that prevented these Neanderthal groups from interbreeding.

Whatever the cause, this suggests that Neanderthal extinction was not simply caused by climate or violence, but by a social “bottleneck.” Their lack of curiosity about the “other” left them genetically vulnerable.

Neanderthals were even more amazing than we thought

The myth that Neanderthals were mindless savages has long been disproved. They seemed to be in every way as an intellectual They are also culturally superior as human beings. However, the reason for their disappearance is even more mysterious.

Thorin’s group was not the only Neanderthal group to become isolated during this period. Other Neanderthals such as the Mezmaiskaya and Mezmaiskaya Chagyrskaya cave Siberia also shows signs of small populations and genetic isolation. Together, these findings suggest that Neanderthals were not a single, cohesive group, but rather a collection of fragmented populations, each facing its own challenges.

This cultural separation may have been another factor in the isolation of the Neanderthal population. While early modern humans likely had broader social networks and exchanged ideas and technologies over greater distances, Neanderthals appear to have had more limited interactions with other groups.

The Thorin population is one of the last surviving Neanderthal groups in Europe. Although isolated, these Neanderthals managed to survive until about 40,000 years ago, just before Neanderthals disappeared from the archaeological record. The discovery of the Thorin genome suggests that these last populations were increasingly fragmented and lived in isolated communities. They faced pressures such as inbreeding, environmental change, and competition with modern humans.

By studying people like Thorin, researchers are beginning to piece together the final chapters of Neanderthal history. It is becoming increasingly clear that the extinction of Neanderthals was not a single event, but the result of a combination of many factors.

Neanderthals were genetically and socially isolated for a long time before becoming extinct. cell genomics (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100593. www.cell.com/cell-genomics/ful … 2666-979X(24)00177-0

This article was originally published on September 13, 2024 and has been rewritten