The oldest DNA from modern humans has been recovered, but there remains one big mystery

The oldest ever DNA relating to modern humans has been discovered, but while it shows they arrived in Europe from Africa in small groups and mixed with Neanderthals more than 45,000 years ago, they ended up dying out without leaving any descendants.

Information relating to the “pioneer population”, considered a “‘lost branch’ of the human family tree”, was obtained from bone remains found in the German town of Ranis – with one researcher involved studying more than 1,000 bone fragments as part of the project.

Published in Nature this week, the research found that even though they went extinct, the early Europeans – described as having dark skin, dark hair and brown eyes and numbering no more than a few hundred - did have children with the Neanderthals between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago.

Though, according to The Telegraph, experts are unsure about what exactly caused them to die out, but believe a volcanic eruption in Italy some 40,000 years ago may have killed off humans and animals by covering Europe in an ash cloud.

Dr Geoff Smith, a zooarcheologist from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and the University of Reading, said: “These DNA results are exciting because they show differences in how frequently various groups of early modern humans met with Neanderthals.

“It is fascinating how these early modern humans were able to adapt to extreme cold conditions but were ultimately unsuccessful and died out.”

Dr Karen Ruebens, linked to the Max Planck Institute, University of California and University of Reading, added the DNA data provides “incredible insights” into the lives of the “pioneering group”.

“The preservation of the ancient bone fragments from Ranis is unprecedented and has given us a huge amount of information about these ancient people. These are the earliest directly dated remains of our species we have yet found in Europe and it’s so exciting to find multiple individuals from one group,” she said.

Previous studies exploring the genetics of early humans have suggested that we can blame Homo sapiens having sex with Neanderthals for our allergies, and that Neanderthals were capable of having abstract thoughts and ideas prior to human interaction.

Dr Ruebens and Dr Smith are now leading a new Reading project to look at more bones fragments from Ranis and hopefully learn more about the lives of this race of modern humans, as well as the Neanderthals.

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