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Genetic mutation in key enzyme may explain why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct A minor genetic difference in one of the enzymes may ... (media.mstdn.social)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/history@fedia.io
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Genetic mutation in key enzyme may explain why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct A minor genetic difference in one of the enzymes may have helped separate modern humans from Neanderthals and Denisovans, our closest extinct relatives, and may have even contributed to the fact that Homo sapiens thrived while the others became extinct..More info: archaeologymag.com/2025/08/whyFollow @archaeology #archaeology #anthropology #evolution #Neanderthals #homosapiens #Denisovans #neanderthal

Genetic mutation in key enzyme may explain why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct A minor genetic difference in one of the enzymes may have helped separate modern humans from Neanderthals and Denisovans, our closest extinct relatives, and may have even contributed to the fact that Homo sapiens thrived while the others became extinct. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), led by researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany...
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[–] 1 point 1 year ago

@archaeology I wasn't. It was because the Neands' homeland -Europe and western Asia- was repeatedly squeezed by ice-ages, but the Moderns' homeland -Africa- wasn't.We replaced them about 30k years ago but they'd held us largely at bay, despite everything, for over 170k years before that....during which time we'd VERY slowly been infiltrating our DNA into theirs.NO big single mutation or switch.

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