• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
First Neanderthal family portrait revealed by DNA discovery

Home> News

Published 20:29 20 Oct 2022 GMT+1

First Neanderthal family portrait revealed by DNA discovery

We now have our first ever Neanderthal 'family portrait' after DNA led to an amazing discovery

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

We've finally been able to get our first look at a Neanderthal 'family portrait' after an incredible DNA discovery.

Once upon a time back before iPhones, crossword puzzles or even books, humans and Neanderthals walked the earth together.

We know that humans (homo sapiens) and Neanderthals (homo neanderthalensis) managed to live together for thousands of years and could even had children together, but eventually all the Neanderthals died out.

While the last of the Neanderthals died out thousands of years ago (score one for team human I guess), we have been putting in a lot of work to figure out what our former neighbours used to be like.

Advert

Now a team has been able to create a 'family portrait' of a group of Neanderthals after studying the remains of 13 individuals and working out that some of them were related to each other.

This is what we think the Neanderthal father and daughter could have looked like.
Tom Bjorklund

This amazing discovery was done by DNA and worked out that the bodies belonged to a close knit family group.

It's so important because while we've learned a lot about Neanderthals over the years, we still don't really know how they lived because people of that time were notoriously lax about taking notes.

Advert

While it would have been really helpful if Ugg and Dug had written a few things down about how the neighbours lived, this discovery of a family group together sheds some light on how Neanderthal society worked.

The discovery of the bones was made in Chagyrskaya Cave, Siberia, and a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

In addition to the Neanderthal bones uncovered they also found evidence of many tools made by the cave's inhabitants and worked out that they were able to hunt animals in the area.

Neanderthals and humans actually lived side by side.
The Granger Collection/Alamy Stock Photo

Advert

As for cracking the question of what wiped out the Neanderthals, it was actually a mixture of things and it wasn't all our fault as last year some of their bones were discovered and it looks like they were killed by hyenas.

While that might be the case, being outcompeted in the race for resources by humans was certainly a factor in the Neanderthals going the way of the Dinosaurs and the Dodo.

Still, even if we did play a bit of a part in them ending up being wiped out it's nice that lots of scientific research is going into working out how these fascinating communities from thousands of years ago lived together.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Featured Image Credit: Tom Bjorklund/Science Photo Library/Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: World News, News, Science

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

X

@MrJoeHarker

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Scientists concerned by discovery after sending robot under the 'Doomsday Glacier'
  • Archaeologists make disturbing discovery inside 'Blood Cave' used by Mayans for ancient rituals
  • DNA analysis contradicts long-lasting assumptions about Pompeii victims’ final moments
  • Archeologists discover 6,000-year-old skeletons with unexplained DNA that could rewrite history

Choose your content:

4 mins ago
an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • Getty Images/IAN VOGLER
    4 mins ago

    Trump's bold 4-word comment to Kate Middleton during state visit with wife revealed

    The president wasted no time to gush over the Princess of Wales

    News
  • Getty Images/Media Access Awards Presented By Easterseals
    an hour ago

    All the celebs who have slammed decision to take Jimmy Kimmel off air over Charlie Kirk comments

    Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air by ABC in the wake of comments he made about Charlie Kirk

    News
  • Getty Images
    2 hours ago

    Three demands Jimmy Kimmel must meet to return to air after suspension over Charlie Kirk segment

    Kimmel's comments about the death of Charlie Kirk caused controversy

    News
  • People via YouTube/Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Icelandic Glacial
    2 hours ago

    Priscilla Presley details heartbreaking decision to turn off daughter Lisa Marie's life support amid lawsuit

    Lisa Marie Presley died at the age of 54 in 2023

    Celebrity