Modern Humans May Have Shared Culture With Neanderthals for 20,000 Years

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals shared culture and technology for over 20,000 years. Excavations at the Üçağızlı II Cave in Türkiye provided evidence of shared symbolic preferences and survival strategies between the two species.
Why it matters
This research challenges previous assumptions about the isolation of early human species and provides deeper insight into the evolutionary history of modern humans.
Most people alive today possess a small amount of Neanderthal DNA —a biological relic from tens of thousands of years ago, when Homo sapiens coexisted with our closest evolutionary cousins. A new study suggests their lives were even more intertwined than experts thought.
The article summarizes scientific findings based on peer-reviewed research without subjective bias.
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