By Meghan Rosen
Fat metabolism genes inherited from Neandertals may have helped Stone Age humans survive in Europe around the time when cave lions and saber-toothed cats ranged the continent.
Remnants of these genetic gifts pop up in the genomes of modern-day Europeans and appear to tweak fat levels in their brains, researchers report April 1 in Nature Communications.
The findings are the latest in a string of studies trying to suss out the role Neandertal ancestry might have played in human evolution (SN: 3/8/14, p. 12).