Editor's Summary

18 October 2007

Neanderthals go east

The classic frame of the Neanderthals — stocky, long-headed, with distinctive features of the skull — began to emerge around 400,000 years ago, and disappeared from hominins around 30,000 years ago. However, determining the precise identity of fragmentary fossils can be difficult. Krause et al. come to the rescue with mitochondrial DNA sequences that confirm that the skeleton of a child recovered in Uzbekistan in the 1930s was of Neanderthal origin — and showing that remains from the Altai region of Siberia, much further east, are also Neanderthal. This extends the Neanderthal range 2,000 km further east than previously assumed.

Letter: Neanderthals in central Asia and Siberia

Johannes Krause, Ludovic Orlando, David Serre, Bence Viola, Kay Prüfer, Michael P. Richards, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Catherine Hänni, Anatoly P. Derevianko & Svante Pääbo

doi:10.1038/nature06193

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