What was the relationship between neandertals and early Homo sapiens? 

When the first humans migrated from Africa to Europe, they encountered neandertals. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Mateja Hajdinjak will map DNA from ancient skeletons around Europe, to try to understand how different populations of Homo sapiens and neandertals interacted, and which of them left traces in our DNA.

Genetic archaeologists have become increasingly able to isolate genetic material from prehistoric humans. They have even succeeded in sequencing DNA from people who lived in Europe 30–50,000 years ago: eight neandertals and seventeen Homo sapiens. The mapping shows that some of the early groups of Homo sapiens are our ancestors, while other groups had no impact on our DNA. Several Homo sapiens also carry neandertal traces in their DNA, but researchers have not yet discovered the opposite. 

To better understand how Homo sapiens and neandertals interacted before the neandertals died out, Dr Mateja Hajdinjak, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, will map DNA from more prehistoric humans. She will isolate DNA from remnants of human bone found at 27 different archaeological sites in Europe and Asia. The aim is to investigate whether there were different species of neandertals and Homo sapiens, how close the contact was between them and which of them left traces in modern humans’ DNA. She also hopes to be able to find genetic explanations for why neandertals died out. 

As a Wallenberg Academy Fellow, Mateja Hajdinjak will work at Stockholm University. 

Photo Patrik Lundin