Learn how these Neanderthal findings shaped what we know about Neanderthals and how our ancient human past is intertwined.

Two studies came to a similar conclusion, highlighting a single, sustained event of mixing DNA. The findings could impact our understanding of when modern humans reached regions like East Asia and Aus ...

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists explore how the year brought us closer to understanding ancient human relatives and origins ...

This year, we learned that our Neanderthal cousins were a lot like us, despite treading their own path that ended in ...

The traits that humans inherited from Neanderthals — tied ... but Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander populations have a small amount. A deeper look at Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in humans will ...

Several scientific studies confirm that both species coexisted for seven millennia and even reproduced among themselves.

“It suggests that hybrid individuals who had Neanderthal DNA in these regions were substantially ... modern Homo sapiens genomes are related to traits and functions that included immune function ...

“The Max Planck group sequenced new ancient DNA samples that allowed ... they think were likely inherited from Neanderthals and offered them beneficial traits. Most of these “high-frequency ...

Then, over the next 100 generations, most Neanderthal DNA got weeded out — but not all. Today, the DNA that remains is linked to traits like skin pigmentation, immune response and metabolism.