No hominin is an island.

Excerpt:

>The study shows that the mitochondrial genome passed from mother to child was much more varied than that of the Y chromosome passed on by fathers. This confirms that in Neanderthal societies women left their families to go and live with other groups and bear children, while men stayed put in the same clan. It is a common practice in many current hunter-gatherer societies that prevents diseases and sterility associated with inbreeding.

>Despite this strategy, the Neanderthal family of Chagyrskaya already seemed doomed to disappear in a few generations. Researchers have studied the genetic variability among all individuals and the level of identical sequences is as high as among current mountain gorillas, one of the most endangered species on the planet.

>The results also indicate that these Neanderthals were from the dominant Western European lineage and had no trace of interbreeding with their Asian Denisovan neighbors, despite living just 100 kilometers away. These data support that isolation and inbreeding contributed to the extinction of these hominins.

The photo of that cave from the outside is awesome. Excellent location. I do wish there had been some photos from inside, though.

Cousin granny? Can I have some more mammoth pleeease? What a great article though.

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