A Parsimonious Neutral Model Suggests Neanderthal Replacement Was Determined by Migration and Random Species Drift

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2017 Nov 2

PMID 29089499

Citations 9

Authors

Oren Kolodny

Marcus W Feldman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Most hypotheses in the heated debate about the Neanderthals' replacement by modern humans highlight the role of environmental pressures or attribute the Neanderthals' demise to competition with modern humans, who occupied the same ecological niche. The latter assume that modern humans benefited from some selective advantage over Neanderthals, which led to the their extinction. Here we show that a scenario of migration and selectively neutral species drift predicts the Neanderthals' replacement. Our model offers a parsimonious alternative to those that invoke external factors or selective advantage, and represents a null hypothesis for assessing such alternatives. For a wide range of parameters, this hypothesis cannot be rejected. Moreover, we suggest that although selection and environmental factors may or may not have played a role in the inter-species dynamics of Neanderthals and modern humans, the eventual replacement of the Neanderthals was determined by the repeated migration of modern humans from Africa into Eurasia.

Citing Articles

Neanderthal coexistence with in Europe was affected by herbivore carrying capacity.

Vidal-Cordasco M, Terlato G, Ocio D, Marin-Arroyo A Sci Adv. 2023; 9(38):eadi4099.

PMID: 37738342 PMC: 10516502. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi4099.

An emerging consensus in palaeoanthropology: demography was the main factor responsible for the disappearance of Neanderthals.

Vaesen K, Dusseldorp G, Brandt M Sci Rep. 2021; 11(1):4925.

PMID: 33649483 PMC: 7921565. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84410-7.

Neanderthals as familiar strangers and the human spark: How the 'golden years' of Neanderthal research reopen the question of human uniqueness.

Peeters S, Zwart H Hist Philos Life Sci. 2020; 42(3):33.

PMID: 32696095 PMC: 7374475. DOI: 10.1007/s40656-020-00327-w.

Inbreeding, Allee effects and stochasticity might be sufficient to account for Neanderthal extinction.

Vaesen K, Scherjon F, Hemerik L, Verpoorte A PLoS One. 2019; 14(11):e0225117.

PMID: 31774843 PMC: 6880983. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225117.

Disease transmission and introgression can explain the long-lasting contact zone of modern humans and Neanderthals.

Greenbaum G, Getz W, Rosenberg N, Feldman M, Hovers E, Kolodny O Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):5003.

PMID: 31676766 PMC: 6825168. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12862-7.

References

Churchill S . Hand morphology, manipulation, and tool use in Neandertals and early modern humans of the Near East. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001; 98(6):2953-5. PMC: 33337. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.061032198. View

Prufer K, Racimo F, Patterson N, Jay F, Sankararaman S, Sawyer S . The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains. Nature. 2013; 505(7481):43-9. PMC: 4031459. DOI: 10.1038/nature12886. View

Slatkin M . Gene flow and genetic drift in a species subject to frequent local extinctions. Theor Popul Biol. 1977; 12(3):253-62. DOI: 10.1016/0040-5809(77)90045-4. View

Reyes-Centeno H, Ghirotto S, Detroit F, Grimaud-Herve D, Barbujani G, Harvati K . Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014; 111(20):7248-53. PMC: 4034217. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1323666111. View

Gravina B, Mellars P, Bronk Ramsey C . Radiocarbon dating of interstratified Neanderthal and early modern human occupations at the Chatelperronian type-site. Nature. 2005; 438(7064):51-6. DOI: 10.1038/nature04006. View

Zilhao J, dErrico F, Bordes J, Lenoble A, Texier J, Rigaud J . Analysis of Aurignacian interstratification at the Chatelperronian-type site and implications for the behavioral modernity of Neandertals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006; 103(33):12643-8. PMC: 1567932. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605128103. View

Green R, Krause J, Briggs A, Maricic T, Stenzel U, Kircher M . A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science. 2010; 328(5979):710-722. PMC: 5100745. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188021. View

Tzedakis P, Hughen K, Cacho I, Harvati K . Placing late Neanderthals in a climatic context. Nature. 2007; 449(7159):206-8. DOI: 10.1038/nature06117. View

Atkinson Q, Gray R, Drummond A . mtDNA variation predicts population size in humans and reveals a major Southern Asian chapter in human prehistory. Mol Biol Evol. 2007; 25(2):468-74. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msm277. View

10.

Dogandzic T, McPherron S . Demography and the demise of Neandertals: a comment on 'Tenfold population increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal-to-modern human transition'. J Hum Evol. 2013; 64(4):311-3. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.01.005. View

11.

Mellars P, French J . Tenfold population increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal-to-modern human transition. Science. 2011; 333(6042):623-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.1206930. View

12.

Henshilwood C, Marean C . The origin of modern human behavior. Curr Anthropol. 2004; 44(5):627-51. DOI: 10.1086/377665. View

13.

Kimura M, Weiss G . The Stepping Stone Model of Population Structure and the Decrease of Genetic Correlation with Distance. Genetics. 1964; 49(4):561-76. PMC: 1210594. DOI: 10.1093/genetics/49.4.561. View

14.

Stringer C . Human evolution: Out of Ethiopia. Nature. 2003; 423(6941):692-3, 695. DOI: 10.1038/423692a. View

15.

Mcbrearty S, Brooks A . The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. J Hum Evol. 2000; 39(5):453-563. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2000.0435. View

16.

Currat M, Excoffier L . Strong reproductive isolation between humans and Neanderthals inferred from observed patterns of introgression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011; 108(37):15129-34. PMC: 3174651. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1107450108. View

17.

Klein R . Paleoanthropology. Whither the Neanderthals?. Science. 2003; 299(5612):1525-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.1082025. View

18.

Higham T, Compton T, Stringer C, Jacobi R, Shapiro B, Trinkaus E . The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe. Nature. 2011; 479(7374):521-4. DOI: 10.1038/nature10484. View

19.

Richards M, Pettitt P, Stiner M, Trinkaus E . Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001; 98(11):6528-32. PMC: 33502. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.111155298. View

20.

Conard N . Cultural modernity: consensus or conundrum?. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010; 107(17):7621-2. PMC: 2867877. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1001458107. View