Study: Modern Humans & Neanderthals 'Interbred in Europe'

Modern humans and Neanderthals interbred in Europe, according to a new study that involves analysis of 40,000-year-old DNA.

According to the study, an early Homo sapiens settler in Europe harbored a Neanderthal ancestor just a few generations back in his family line.

Earlier, another study had suggested that the modern humans interbred with Neanderthals 55,000 years ago, possibly in the Middle East.

The scientists found segments of Neanderthal DNA in the fossil that were large enough to indicate that the ancient man had a Neanderthal ancestor just four to six generations back, BBC noted.

"It's an incredibly unexpected thing," said Prof David Reich, a co-author of the paper from the Harvard Medical School.

"In the last few years, we've documented interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, but we never thought we'd be so lucky to find someone so close to that event."

 "It is such a lucky and unexpected thing to get DNA from a person who was so closely related to a Neanderthal," said Co-author Prof Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

The study is published in the Nature journal.