Overview

• Researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Université de Liège, and France’s Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle analyzed a 3–5-year-old skeleton from Skhūl Cave in Israel.
• The child’s skull shape aligns with Homo sapiens, while the intracranial blood supply, lower jaw, and inner ear match Neanderthal patterns.
• The fossil is dated to roughly 140,000 years ago, marking the earliest known human remains with features from both groups.
• The team argues this points to interbreeding far earlier than the previously estimated 60,000–40,000-year window for major gene exchange.
• The authors link the mixed traits to ongoing local gene flow involving an older Neanderthal-like population known as Nesher Ramla Homo, with findings published June 14 in L’Anthropologie.