Scientists have discovered the oldest evidence in the world of the Neanderne man’s cross: a 140,000 -year -old child from the Israel cave.
The fossil shows a unique mixture of features, revealing that humans and Neanderthals mixed tens of thousands of years earlier than.
The discovery of fossils defies the chronology of human evolution
An international team of researchers from the University of Tel Aviv and the French National Center for Scientific Research revealed the first proof that the Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens have formed close ties, both socially and biologically, in what is now Israel.
Their study focuses on the skeleton of a five -year -old child who unearthed almost a century ago in the Skhul cave on Mount Carmel. Dating around 140,000 years, the fossil is the oldest known example of a human with a mixture of traits of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. For decades, these groups have been considered entirely separate[{” attribute=”” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>species.
The project was led by Prof. Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University’s Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and Anne Dambricourt-Malassé of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The results were published in the journal l’Anthropologie.
Earliest Evidence of Human Hybrid Traits
According to the research team, “This discovery reveals the world’s earliest known human fossil showing morphological traits of both of these human groups, which until recently were considered two separate human species. The current study shows that the five-year-old child’s skeleton is the result of continuous genetic infiltration from the local—and older—Neanderthal population into the Homo sapiens population.”
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An international study led by researchers from the University of Tel Aviv and the French National Center for Scientific Research provides the first scientific evidence that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had biological and social relations, and even interrupted for the first time, in the country of Israel.
DNA Links between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens
“Genetic studies in the past decade have shown that these two groups have exchanged genes,” said Professor Hershkovitz. “Even today, 40,000 years after the disappearance of the last Neanderthals, part of our genome – 2 to 6% – is of Neanderthal origin. But these gene exchanges took place much later, between 60,000 and 40,000 years.
“Here we are dealing with a 140,000 -year -old human fossil. In our study, we show that the child’s skull, which in its global form resembles that of Homo sapiens, in particular in the curvature of the lower jaw, and an inner ear structure typical of Neanderthals.
Neanderthals in the Levant: a much deeper story
For years, the Neanderthals would be a group that has evolved in Europe, migrating to the country of Israel only 70,000 years ago, following the progress of European glaciers. In a revolutionary study in 2021 published in the prestigious review ScienceProfessor Hershkovitz and his colleagues showed that the first Neanderthals lived in the country of Israel in 400,000 years.
This human type, which Professor Hershkovitz called “Nesher Ramla Homo” (after the archaeological site near the Nesher Ramla factory where it was found), met the Homo Sapiens groups which began to leave Africa about 200,000 years ago – and, according to the results of the current study, hampered them.
The child of the Skhul cave is the first fossil evidence in the world of social and biological ties forged between these two populations over thousands of years. Local Neanderthals finally disappeared when they were absorbed in the Homo Sapiens population, much like the subsequent European Neanderthals.
Advanced technology unlocks old secrets
The researchers reached these conclusions after having carried out a series of advanced tests on the fossil. First of all, they scanned the skull and jaw using micro-CT technology at the SHMUNIS Family Anthropology Institute at Tel Aviv University, creating a precise three-dimensional model of the analyzes.
This allowed them to carry out a complex morphological analysis of anatomical structures (including non -visible structures such as the inner ear) and to compare them to various hominid populations. To study the structure of the blood vessels surrounding the brain, they also created a precise 3D reconstruction of the interior of the skull.
The Skhul Child: the oldest human hybrid in the world
“The fossil that we studied is the first known physical proof of mating between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens,” said Professor Hershkovitz. “In 1998, a skeleton of a child was discovered in Portugal who showed features of these two human groups. But this skeleton, nicknamed “the child of the Lapedo valley”, dates back to 28,000 years – more than 100,000 years after the child Skhul.
“Traditionally, anthropologists have attributed the fossils discovered in the Skhul cave, as well as fossils of the Qafzeh cave near Nazareth, to a first group of Homo sapiens. This study reveals that at least some of the fossils in the Skhul cave are the result of the continuous genetic population of the local population.
Reference: “A new analysis of the neurocranium and the mandible of the child Skhūl I: taxonomic conclusions and cultural implications” by Bastien Bouvier, Anne Dambricourt Disflé, Marcel Otte, Michael Levitzky and Israel Hershkovitz, June 14, 2025, Anthropology.
DOI: 10.1016 / J.anthro.2025.103385
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