Pre-Neanderthals roamed Eurasia between 500,000 and 250,000 years before now. The end of this period was when pre-Neanderthals began to evolve into the early Neanderthals that would later become the classic Neanderthal.
Most researchers believed during that time that Neanderthals underwent very few evolutionary changes. Recent findings in Nature Communications could have changed this long-held view. This study examines an alleged ‘bottlenecking’ event that indicates a genetic loss between classic Neanderthals (early Neanderthals) and early Neanderthals.
Bottleneck Events: What Are They? A bottleneck is a rapid drop in the population of a particular species. Natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes as well as human interventions, pandemics, and famine can cause these dropoffs. The American Bison represents a case of genetic bottleneck. There were millions of American bison before Europeans pushed into North America’s heartland. In the 1800s, only 750 American Bison remained due to excessive hunting and slaughter. The herds are making a comeback but genetic diversity has been lost. This research is not the only one to support the theory that a bottleneck occurred in Neanderthals. A study in Nature Communications (19459006) andsuggests that a bottleneck occurred during the early Neanderthal lineage. The research team relied on their hypothesis in order to make their conclusions, even though further studies are needed to confirm this theory. Read more: The Fascinating Evolution of Neanderthals: Where did Neanderthals come from? The Neanderthal Bottleneck
This study analyzed DNA from samples taken from two fossil collections. First, the Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca (Burgos), Spain site, with an estimated age of 430,000 years. This is also the most complete collection of pre-Neanderthals in fossil records. Second, the site Krapina in Croatia has the largest collection of Neanderthals dating back 130,000 to 120,000 year ago. The results
revealed some genetic losses between the early Neanderthals (early Neanderthals) and the classic Neanderthals. The research team deduced from the data that the bottlenecking likely took place around 110,000 years. The study found that the morphological results were similar to DNA analysis. The Ear of Genetic Bottlenecks (19659010)
To achieve these results, Alessandro Urciuoli, from the Institut Catala de Paleontologia and Miquel Crusafont, from the Universitat Autoritat de Barcelona and Mercedes Conde Valverde, from the Catedra de Otoacustica Evolutiva de HM Hospitales y la Universidad de Alcala analyzed and measured the morphological variety The team has been able to measure genetic diversity using the ears of Neanderthals. Results show classic Neanderthals have a smaller morphological variety of semicircular channels than pre-Neanderthals. Alessandro Urciuoli is the lead author and said in a release that they were “surprised” to discover that pre-Neanderthals of Sima de los Huesos had a similar level of diversity to the early Neanderthals of Krapina. This contradicts the commonly held belief that there was a bottleneck at the beginning of the Neanderthal clade.
These results suggest that the bottleneck did indeed occur but not when researchers thought. The findings add another puzzle piece to our understanding of Neanderthal evolution.
By including fossils from different geographical regions and time periods, we captured a complete picture of Neanderthal evolutionary history. According to a study by Mercedes Conde Valverde, the reduction of diversity between Krapina and classical Neanderthals was particularly striking. This is strong evidence for a bottleneck.The article in this article has been republished from thearticle that was originally published.
Click Here to Read More.Exploring Neanderthal ancestry: Who came before the Neanderthals. Article Sources:
Discovermagazine.com writers use high-quality, peer-reviewed sources and studies for their articles. Our editors also review the article for accuracy in terms of scientific standards and accuracy. Nature Communications
- is the source for this article. Semicircular Canals illuminate bottleneck events during the evolution of Neanderthals