News Anthropology

DNA reveals Neandertals traveled thousands of kilometers into Asia

Genetic and stone tool similarities link a fossil bone with Neandertals 3,000 kilometers away

image of Starosele rock-shelter

Excavations decades ago at Crimea’s Starosele rock-shelter, shown here, yielded a fossil bone that has now divulged a genetic glimpse of long-distance Neandertal treks into Asia.

Serhii Telizhenko

By Bruce Bower

A fossil unearthed on Eastern Europe’s Crimean Peninsula has divulged the strongest genetic clues yet about Neandertals’ long-distance journeys into the heart of Asia.