Britannica
Sources used in this answer
When did interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans occur?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Neanderthal
Artist's rendering of Homo neanderthalensis, who ranged from western Europe to Central Asia for some 100,000 years before dying out approximately 30,000 years ago.
Genetic evidence indicates that interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans occurred between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago.1
While the exact timing of their first encounter remains a subject of study, fossil evidence places both groups in the same location as early as 55,000 years ago in the Levant. Modern humans and Neanderthals likely mated on multiple occasions, both before and after the ancestors of modern European and East Asian populations diverged. This interbreeding is reflected in the genomes of modern Eurasian populations, which typically carry approximately 2 percent Neanderthal nuclear DNA.12