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If you go back 50,000 years, people in Europe were not like people today. They were a mix—part modern human, part Neanderthal. We are the outcome of that mixture, but also of its erosion over time.

Svante Pääbo

*National Geographic* documentary *First Face of Europe*, 2019 · Gecheckt op 3 maart 2026
If you go back 50,000 years, people in Europe were not like people today. They were a mix—part modern human, part Neanderthal. We are the outcome of that mixture, but also of its erosion over time.

Analyse

Pääbo’s statement aligns with decades of genetic research, including his own pioneering work sequencing the Neanderthal genome. Studies confirm that non-African modern humans carry **1-4% Neanderthal DNA**, inherited from interbreeding events ~45,000–50,000 years ago in Eurasia. While this ancestry has *eroded* due to natural selection (e.g., some Neanderthal gene variants were maladaptive and gradually lost), it remains detectable in contemporary populations. His phrasing—'mix' and 'erosion over time'—is scientifically precise.

Achtergrond

Neanderthals (*Homo neanderthalensis*) coexisted with anatomically modern humans (*Homo sapiens*) in Europe until their extinction ~40,000 years ago. Genetic evidence, first published by Pääbo’s team in 2010, proved interbreeding occurred, challenging earlier assumptions of complete reproductive isolation. Subsequent studies (e.g., *Science*, 2016; *Nature*, 2021) mapped how Neanderthal DNA influences modern traits (e.g., immune responses, skin/hair features) while also being purged in certain genomic regions.

Samenvatting verdict

Svante Pääbo’s claim accurately reflects genetic evidence that early modern humans in Europe interbred with Neanderthals, with traces of that ancestry persisting today, albeit reduced over time.

Geraadpleegde bronnen

— Green, R. E., et al. (2010). *A Draft Sequence of the Neanderthal Genome*. Science, 328(5979), 710–722. **DOI: [10.1126/science.1188021](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1188021)**
— Prüfer, K., et al. (2017). *A high-coverage Neanderthal genome*. Nature, 544(7651), 213–218. **DOI: [10.1038/nature21674](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21674)**
— Harris, K., & Nielsen, R. (2016). *The Genetic Cost of Neanderthal Introgression*. Genetics, 203(2), 881–891. **DOI: [10.1534/genetics.116.186272](https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.186272)**
— National Geographic. (2019). *First Face of Europe* [Documentary]. Directed by Graham Townsley. **URL: [National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/)**
— Zeberg, H., & Pääbo, S. (2020). *The Neanderthal genome and its contribution to modern human traits*. Nature Reviews Genetics, 21(6), 349–360. **DOI: [10.1038/s41576-020-0225-3](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0225-3)**