Overview
- A peer‑reviewed Current Biology paper by Kanis et al. published Wednesday, August 5, 2026, used three high‑coverage and two medium‑coverage Neanderthal genomes to identify two amino‑acid changes in the growth hormone receptor that entered non‑African humans about 47,000 years ago.
- In cultured cells engineered to carry the archaic receptor, growth‑hormone signaling and cell proliferation were about 39–40% higher than in cells with the modern human receptor.
- Researchers analysed trait and genetic data from more than 1.1 million adults in five biobanks and found carriers averaged roughly 0.3 centimetres taller and about 0.25–0.27 kilograms more muscle than non‑carriers.
- The variant is geographically uneven today, occurring at highest frequencies in South and East Asia (around 20–24% and ~15% respectively), at about 0.5% in Europe, and absent in sampled sub‑Saharan African populations, and it is also associated with subtle jaw and tooth‑root differences.
- The study links ancient genomes, lab experiments, and large biobank analyses to show a single introgressed allele can influence growth, but the effects are small, appear around puberty, and do not explain the full Neanderthal body plan or determine an individual’s appearance.