Israeli fossil may recast history of first Europeans
Ancient braincase suggests humans and Neandertals mated in Middle East, then moved north
By Bruce Bower
Excavations in Israel’s Manot Cave have unearthed the first fossil — a braincase — of a modern human who lived outside Africa between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago.
Interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neandertals probably occurred during that time, after which the humans migrated to Europe, a team led by paleoanthropologist Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University reports in the Jan. 29 Nature.
If so, Neandertal-like skeletal traits of Stone Age humans in Europe were inherited from Middle Eastern Homo sapiens, not European Neandertals.