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The first genomic portrait of a Neanderthal family

Ancient genomic data have been retrieved for 13 Neanderthals from 2 caves in Siberia. The genomes provide unprecedented insights into the social organization of Neanderthal communities.
  1. Lara M. Cassidy

    1. Lara M. Cassidy is in the Department of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.

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Like all humans, Neanderthals lived their lives embedded in communities. They ate, slept, loved and died in the company of their kin. These communities were connected to others in larger webs of interaction, together forming a region’s Neanderthal population. But how were the communities organized? What relationships formed the fabric of a group? Who left home to join another clan and who stayed put? Writing in Nature, Skov et al.1 address these questions, by sequencing DNA from the bones of 13 Neanderthal men, women and children.

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Nature 610, 454-455 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03005-y

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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