Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Credit: Israel Hershkovitz/Tel Aviv University
A 140,000-year-old skull found in Israel may belong to a child born from two different human species—Neanderthal and Homo sapiens—blurring the boundaries of what we thought was human.
Credit: Israel Hershkovitz/Tel Aviv University
Paleoanthropologists now say this child’s skull shows undeniable features from both species—raising the possibility that early humans and Neanderthals were interbreeding far earlier than believed.
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The girl wasn’t just discovered—she was buried. Her remains were found in one of the world’s earliest known cemeteries, possibly signaling shared funeral rites between human species.
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If Neanderthals and Homo sapiens mourned and buried their children together, it means they may have shared not just DNA—but empathy, grief, and complex emotional lives.
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The skull was unearthed nearly a century ago in Israel’s Skhul Cave—but only now, with modern analysis, are scientists realizing the child may rewrite human evolution.
This hybrid child was found in the Levant, a known migration corridor—suggesting it may have been ground zero for interspecies unions between early humans and Neanderthals.
Credit: Israel Hershkovitz/Tel Aviv University
Most evidence of Neanderthal–human mixing comes from Europe 40,000 years ago. This skull pushes that timeline back another 100,000 years—changing the story completely.
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The child only lived to age five. Scientists say hybridization may have been rare or risky—but clearly, it happened. And this skull proves it wasn't a genetic fluke.
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One tiny cranium. Two species. A burial site filled with questions. And a find that could upend what we thought we knew about who we are—and where we came from.
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