Where and when did modern humans mix with Neanderthals?
The international research team that reconstructed the Neanderthal genome, Svääbo et al at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, suggests that interbreeding took place in Arabia, Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East or Western Asia when the first small group of modern human ancestors of all non-African peoples left the African Continent about 80,000 years ago. Taking the beachcomber route, these forefathers and foremothers of all non-African peoples spread and expanded to India, Southeast Asia, Australia, China, Siberia, the Caucasus and eventually Europe, with back migrations to the Middle East and North Africa. Because of what is known as a “founder effect,” they carried Neanderthals genes into all descendant populations.
