Читать книгу Introducing Anthropology - Laura Pountney - Страница 18

There were around twenty different species of early humans. While it was once thought that they existed separately, recent genetic evidence now suggests that there was significant overlap between early human groups. It is now understood that modern humans, on emerging first from Africa around 70,000 years ago, encountered and mated with Neanderthals in the Middle East. Children born from these encounters carried some Neanderthal genes, and, as modern humans advanced throughout Europe and Asia, they carried these genes with them. There have recently been a number of findings about the overlaps between early groups of humans. This section explores some of the most well-known recent examples that provide significant insights into the evolution of hominins.