Anonymousabout 3 hours ago
An international research team has extracted mitochondrial DNA from eight Neanderthal teeth found in Stajnia Cave, Poland, identifying at least seven individuals who lived together roughly 100,000 years ago — the oldest multi-individual genetic reconstruction of a Neanderthal group in Central-Eastern Europe. The findings, published in Current Biology in April 2026, reveal close kinship among some members and connect their maternal lineage to Neanderthals across western Eurasia, reshaping assumptions about the region's role in Neanderthal population dynamics.