Scientists unearth world’s oldest human DNA in Europe – unlocking key part of our history & family tree
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BAFFLED scientists have unearthed the world's oldest human DNA in Europe - with a key part of our history and family tree unlocked. In a cave under a medieval castle, 13 bone fragments were unearthed that belonged to six individuals including a mum and a daughter, as well as distant cousins.
![[An illustration of ancient humans from Ranis, Germany and the Czech Republic]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image-provided-max-planck-institute-956926098.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The fragments were discovered in Ranis, Germany, with the people they belonged to believed to have walked the earth around 45,000 years ago, according to a study. The ancient genomes sequenced from the bone fragments carried breakthrough evidence of Neanderthal ancestry.
![[The cave system in the heart of the limestone region known as Bohemian Karst in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/kon-prusk-jeskyn-zlat-k-957381720_f1ee2f.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Researchers determined that the ancestors of the early humans who lived in and around the area are likely to have encountered and had babies with Neanderthals around 80 generations prior. This equates to 1,500 years earlier, but the interaction didn't necessarily happen in the same location.
![[An illustration of an ancient human whose skull was found in the Czech Republic]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image-provided-max-planck-institute-956926103.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Experts have known since the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010 that early humans interbred with Neanderthals. This was seen as a bombshell breakthrough in knowledge, as it laid the foundations in the understanding of a genetic legacy that is still traceable in humans today.
![[A rendering of Neanderthals hunting a cave bear]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dybaj8-neanderthals-hunt-cave-bear-512287119.webp?strip=all&w=620)
But it's unclear when, how often, and where the unbelievable juncture in human history actually took place. And the individuals in the cave in Ranis were among the first Homo sapiens to live in Europe. One woman - who lived 143 miles away in Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republicic - was also an early European and connected to the Ranis people.
