Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in Europeans Fact Checked

We make use of genomic data for 2,257 Europeans (in the Population Reference Sample [POPRES] dataset) to conduct one of the first surveys of recent genealogical ancestry over the past 3,000 years at a continental scale. We detected 1.9 million shared long genomic segments, and used the lengths of these to infer the distribution of shared ancestors across time and geography.

As this implies, Neanderthals and Denisovans were likely more closely related to one another than either was to modern humans [14]. Although the range covered by Denisovans is argued, studies have confirmed the impact of Denisovan ancestry in the islands of Oceania, particularly Papua New Guinea, and some parts of mainland Asia, such as Tibet. All H. sapiens living today have interbred to some degree with Neanderthals, Denisovans, or other hominins, and as outlined above, we know that these hominin groups lasted longer and interbred more in some parts of the world than in other areas.

It is also observed when we control for a direct estimate of the degree of selective constraint: the genetic diversity observed empirically at each gene in sub-Saharan Africans (P=3.2×10−7 for Denisovans; P=2.9×10−3 for Neanderthal, Supplemental Experimental Procedures section S6).

Checking your browser before accessing pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Click here if you are not automatically redirected after 5 seconds

The percentage of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans is zero or close to zero in people from African populations, and is about 1 to 2 percent in people of European or Asian background.

High-coverage and low-coverage genomic data for some of the earliest modern humans in Europe provide insights into recent admixture with Neanderthals and familial relationship links with distant communities approximately 45,000 years ago.