World's Oldest Human-Neanderthal Hybrid Child Discovered

An international research team has identified the world’s earliest known evidence of Neanderthal interbreeding with modern humans in a 140,000-year-old child’s skeleton discovered in Israel’s Skhul Cave. The study, published in l’Anthropologie, reveals the first physical proof that these two human populations were mating over 100,000 years earlier than previously documented.

The five-year-old child’s remains, found about 90 years ago on Mount Carmel, display a unique combination of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthal anatomical features. Led by Professor Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University and Anne Dambricourt-Malassé from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the analysis used advanced micro-CT scanning to create detailed 3D models of the skull and jaw.

• Princeton Study Maps 200,000 years of Human–Neanderthal Interbreeding
• Study Shows Humans and Neanderthals Interbred Primarily in the Near East