Cave yields Neanderthals find Fossilised bone fragments of a father, teenage daughter and other rela [View all]

Cave yields Neanderthals find Fossilised bone fragments of a father, teenage daughter and other related Neanderthals were found in Russia
PUBLISHED : 13 NOV 2022 AT 04:00

Analysing fossils from a cave in Russia, scientists have found the first known Neanderthal family: a father, his teenage daughter and others who were probably close cousins.

The findings, published last month in the journal Nature, painted a tragic picture of our extinct relatives, who roamed Eurasia tens of thousands of years ago. The family, part of a band of 11 Neanderthals found together in the cave, most likely died together, scientists said, possibly from starvation.

The study was carried out by a team of researchers including Svante Paabo, a Swedish geneticist who for 25 years has been uncovering the secrets of Neanderthals, from extracting their DNA from cave floor dirt to replicating their brain cells. He won the Nobel Prize last month for his efforts.

"I would not have thought we would be able to detect a father and daughter from bone fragments, or Neanderthal DNA in cave sediments, or any other of the things that are now becoming almost routine," said Mr Paabo, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. "It has been an amazing journey."

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