Human evolution: The eastern extent of Neanderthals

Neanderthals could have spread as far east as central Asia and Siberia — more than 2,000 kilometres further than previously thought — according to new DNA evidence published online this week in Nature.

Neanderthal fossils have previously been found over a large area, stretching from the Mediterranean to as far east as Uzbekistan. Most remains are fragmentary, however, so it can be difficult to determine whether a fossil is of Neanderthal or of modern human origin.

Svante Pääbo and colleagues looked at mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from two sets of hominid remains — one child skeleton from Uzbekistan and adult fossils from Okladnikov in southern Siberia — to find out whether they fell within the European Neanderthal mtDNA variation. The partial skeleton from Teshik-Tash in Uzbekistan is of an 8–10-year-old boy discovered in the 1930s. This fossil is thought to represent the easternmost extent of the Neanderthal range, but scientists have never been able to confirm it. The authors extracted mtDNA samples from four bones: the left femur of the Teshik-Tash child and three fragmentary pieces from the Siberian fossils.

The results show that the mtDNA fossil sequences fall within the European Neanderthal mtDNA variation, suggesting that the geographical range of Neanderthals extended farther east into southern Siberia than has generally been assumed. The authors conclude that further DNA sequences from across the Neanderthal range are needed to build up a better picture of how Neanderthals colonized different regions, and whether they ever reached as far east as Mongolia or China.