Although it has previously been shown that Neanderthals contributed DNA to modern humans1,2, not much is known about the genetic diversity of Neanderthals or the relationship between late Neanderthal populations at the time at which their last interactions with early modern humans occurred and before they eventually disappeared. Our ability to retrieve DNA from a larger number of Neanderthal individuals has been limited by poor preservation of endogenous DNA3 and contamination of Neanderthal skeletal remains by large amounts of microbial and present-day human DNA3,4,5. Here we use hypochlorite treatment6 of as little as 9 mg of bone or tooth powder to generate between 1- and 2.7-fold genomic coverage of five Neanderthals who lived around 39,000 to 47,000 years ago (that is, late Neanderthals), thereby doubling the number of Neanderthals for which genome sequences are available. Genetic similarity among late Neanderthals is well predicted by their geographical location, and comparison to the genome of an older Neanderthal from the Caucasus2,7 indicates that a population turnover is likely to have occurred, either in the Caucasus or throughout Europe, towards the end of Neanderthal history. We find that the bulk of Neanderthal gene flow into early modern humans originated from one or more source populations that diverged from the Neanderthals that were studied here at least 70,000 years ago, but after they split from a previously sequenced Neanderthal from Siberia2 around 150,000 years ago. Although four of the Neanderthals studied here post-date the putative arrival of early modern humans into Europe, we do not detect any recent gene flow from early modern humans in their ancestry.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
Teilhardina belgica is one of the earliest fossil primates ever recovered and the oldest fossil primate from Europe (~ 56 Million years). It was originally described by Teilhard de Chardin (1927) from the MP7 reference level of Dormaal (Belgium), which is situated at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary at the base of the Tienen Formation (Smith & Smith, 1996). Teilhardina is known on all three northern continents in association with the carbon isotope excursion marking the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Relative position within the carbon isotope excursion indicates that Asian Teilhardina asiatica is oldest, European T. belgica is younger, and North American T. brandti and T. americana are, successively, youngest. Analysis of morphological dental characteristics of all four species supports an Asian origin and a westward Asia-to-Europe-to-North America dispersal for Teilhardina. High-resolution isotope stratigraphy indicates that this dispersal happened in an interval of 25,000 years (Smith et al, 2006). Moreover, Teilhardina is one of the most primitive fossil primates known to date and the earliest haplorhine with associated three dimensional postcranials making it relevant to a reconstruction of the ancestral primate morphotype. As such, Teilhardina has often been hypothesized as a basal tarsiiform on the basis of its primitive dental formula with four premolars and a simplified molar cusp pattern. Until recently, little was known concerning its postcranial anatomy with the exception of its well-known tarsals. Here we describe additional postcranial elements for Teilhardina belgica and compare these to other tarsiiforms and to primitive adapiforms. Teilhardina is a small primate with an estimated body mass between 30-60 g, similar to the size of a mouse lemur. Its hindlimb anatomy suggests frequent and forceful leaping with excellent foot mobility and grasping capabilities. It can now be established that it exhibits critical primate postcranial synapomorphies such as a grasping hallux and a tall knee (Gebo et al, 2012), and nailed digits (Rose et al, 2011). This anatomical pattern and behavioral profile is similar to what has been inferred before for other omomyids and adapiforms. The most unusual feature of Teilhardina belgica is its elongated middle phalanges suggesting that this early primate had very long fingers similar to those of living tarsiers. Our phyletic analysis indicates that we can identify several postcranial characteristics shared in common for stem primates as well as note several derived postcranial characters for Tarsiiformes.
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