Oldest Neanderthal DNA Ever Found Is Discovered in Skeleton in Italy

TIME Science Archaeology Oldest Neanderthal DNA Ever Found Is Discovered in Skeleton in Italy The molecules are from 130,000 to 170,000 years ago

Researchers studying a skeleton from a cave in Italy have discovered the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever found.

Scientists have dated the molecules to about 130,000 to 170,000 years ago, according to Live Science. The skeleton was first found in 1993, but a new study evaluating the DNA from a piece of its right shoulder blade suggests that the fossil was a Neanderthal, the closest extinct relative of modern humans.

We have a nearly complete human fossil skeleton to describe and study in detail. It is a dream, Fabio Di Vincenzo, the studys co-author, told Live Science. His morphology offers a rare glimpse on the earliest phase of the evolutionary history of Neanderthals and on one of the most crucial events in human evolution. He can help us better understand whenand, in particular, howNeanderthals evolved.

[Live Science]

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Oldest Neanderthal DNA Ever Found Is Discovered in Skeleton in Italy