When modern humans emerged from Africa, they explored far more than just new places. They encountered other human species, and in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, they did a heck of a lot more than just say hello.
New research suggests this is where Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis interbred, changing the fate of at least our species, as we still carry Neanderthal DNA millennia later.
Archaeologist Saman Guran from Germany's University of Cologne and colleagues used a combination of genetic, archaeological, topographical, and ecological data to narrow down the location.
"We believe that the Zagros Mountains acted as a corridor… facilitating northwards dispersal of [modern humans] and southwards dispersal of Neanderthals," the team writes in their published paper.
This area includes one of the best-known Neanderthal sites, Shanidar Cave, where the remains of ten Neanderthal individuals were discovered, including the famous flower burial.
Discoveries such as these have revealed Neanderthals are far smarter, creative, and caring than we initially gave them credit for.
Guran and team's modeling based on the multiple data sources suggests the Zagros Mountains are where the environmental conditions that best suit modern humans and those best suited to our now extinct cousins overlap.
It includes regions of colder habitats like the Neanderthals' Palearctic birthplaces, as well as the warmer richer habitats of the Afrotropical realm that birthed our own species.
"Archaeological and fossil evidence indicates that [modern humans] entered southwestern Asia during [this time]," the researchers say.
The timing, between around 120 and 80 thousand years ago, coincides with the second wave of interbreeding that's still written in our genes.
With its high biodiversity, the Zagros region also had enough resources to allow both species to exist side by side, and the variety of environments allowed for pockets of safety when climatic conditions got tough.
"The border areas of two realms are important in biology since they operate as refugia for species from glacial environments," Guran and team explain.
Article:
We May Have Found Where Modern Humans And Neanderthals Became One
An encounter that changed the fate of our species.
www.sciencealert.com
Study:
Reconstructing contact and a potential interbreeding geographical zone between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans - Scientific Reports
While the interbreeding of Homo neanderthalensis (hereafter Neanderthal) and Anatomically modern human (AMH) has been proven, owing to the shortage of fossils and absence of appropriate DNA, the timing and geography of their interbreeding are not clearly known. In this study, we applied...
www.nature.com
