Illustration of Zlatý kůň, who belonged to the same population as the Ranis individuals and was closely related to two of them. (Tom Björklund for Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
When modern humans migrated out of Africa, they encountered and interbred with Neanderthals. This genetic exchange resulted in the presence of approximately 2-3% Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of all non-African populations today. Nevertheless, our understanding of the genetic makeup of these initial European settlers and the precise timeline of Neandertal gene flow into non-African populations is limited.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that genomes of seven early Europeans show they belonged to a small, isolated group that had recently mixed with Neandertals but left no present-day descendants.
The Zlatý kůň site in Czechia is a key location for understanding early human occupation in Europe. A complete skull, dating back approximately 45,000 years, was discovered and subjected to genetic analysis. Despite its significance, the lack of archaeological context hinders our ability to link this individual to any specific cultural group.
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The nearby Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany, is renowned for its LRJ archaeological assemblage, which dates to around 45,000 years ago. The cultural affiliation of the LRJ, whether Neandertal or early modern human, has been a subject of longstanding debate. Although primarily fragmentary bone remains have been recovered from Ranis, previous research successfully analyzed mitochondrial DNA from thirteen individuals, confirming their modern human identity. However, due to the limited genetic information provided by mitochondrial DNA, the specific relationships of these individuals to other modern human populations remain elusive.
”To our surprise, we discovered a fifth- or sixth-degree genetic relationship between Zlatý kůň and two individuals from Ranis.” says Arev Sümer, lead author of the study, ”This means that Zlatý kůň was genetically part of the extended family of Ranis and likely also made LRJ-type tools”.
The Zlatý kůň/Ranis population represents the earliest known divergence from the group of modern humans that migrated out of Africa and dispersed later across Eurasia. Despite this early separation, the Neandertal ancestry in Zlatý kůň and Ranis originated from the same ancient admixture event that can be detected in all people outside Africa today. By analyzing the length of the segments contributed from Neandertals in the high-coverage Ranis13 genome and using direct radiocarbon dates on this individual, the researchers dated this shared Neandertal admixture to between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago. Since all present-day non-African populations share this Neandertal ancestry with Zlatý kůň and Ranis, this means that around 45,000 to 49,000 years ago, a coherent ancestral non-African population must still have existed.
“These results provide us with a deeper understanding of the earliest pioneers that settled in Europe,” says Johannes Krause, senior author of the study. “They also indicate that any modern human remains found outside Africa that are older than 50,000 years could not have been part of the common non-African population that interbred with Neanderthals and is now found across much of the world.”
