Modern humans and Neanderthals may have interacted 100,000 years earlier than previously thought. That's according to researchers who used CT scans and 3D mapping to study the bones of a child they believe was the result of interbreeding between the two distinct groups. The child was buried in a cave in Israel some 140,000 years ago. Because no ancient DNA was extracted from the fossilized remains, it's impossible to confirm the child's origins, but scientists say microscopic details in the bones indicate the child had traits of both groups. The findings were published recently in the peer-reviewed journal L'Anthropologie.
Scientists have traced the ancestry of the modern horse to a lineage that emerged 4,200 years ago and quickly became dominant across Eurasia. The research published Thursday suggests that's when humans started to spread domesticated horses around the world. This horse lineage had a genetic mutation that changed the shape of its back, likely making it easier to ride. People had domesticated other animals several thousand years before horses — including dogs, pigs, cattle, goats and sheep. But the new research that analyzed 475 ancient horse genomes shows that the shrinking genetic diversity associated with domestication happened much faster in horses.
