ISSN 1662-4009 (online)

ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology (2018) 15 14.9 | DOI: 10.1530/ey.15.14.9


To read the full abstract: Science 2017:eaao1807

Consanguinity is common in some modern cultures. This study examined the question whether ancient humans, who often had limited choices of mates, bred among close relatives. Here, Sikora et al. report genome sequences from 4 early humans buried close together in western Russia about 34,000 years ago. The individuals clustered together genetically and came from a population with a small effective size, but they were not very closely related. Thus, these people may represent a single social group that was part of a larger mating network, similar to contemporary hunter-gatherers. Humans of that time were already organized in small groups with limited within-band kinship and inbreeding, and with wide social, mating networks, resembling the way in which many present-day hunter-gatherers live today. The lack of close inbreeding might help to explain the survival advantage of anatomically modern humans. Until recently, our understanding of the socio-cultural milieu of Paleolithic humans was limited to what can be inferred from the archeological record. Genomics and the art of retrieval of ancient genomes make it possible to address socio-cultural milieu from a new angle.

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