Overview
- Researchers published a Nature study on Wednesday that reconstructed genetic data from 27 late Neanderthals from Belgium and France, including a new high-coverage genome from Goyet Cave.
- The Goyet genome is the fifth high-quality Neanderthal genome produced, materially expanding the small set of detailed Neanderthal genomes available for analysis.
- Analyses show these Meuse Basin Neanderthals formed a well-connected regional population with no signs of rising harmful mutation load or close-relative mating over time.
- Despite overlapping in time with early modern humans, the studied Neanderthals show no clear traces of recent modern-human ancestry, creating a striking one-way pattern of gene flow into Homo sapiens.
- The results weaken the hypothesis that progressive genetic deterioration alone explains Neanderthal disappearance and highlight regional variation, the need for broader geographic sampling, and further study of climate and demographic pressures.