250,000 Years Ago Did Neanderthals Migrate to Africa?

Did Neanderthals migrate to Africa? Contrary to popular belief, Human evolution was not characterized by survival of the fittest and extinction. In fact, Evolution all comes down to interaction and mixture. According to a new study, Neanderthals had genes from ancient interactions with 'cousins' of Homo sapiens. Neanderthals inherited at least 6% of their genome from an extinct lineage of archaic Homo sapiens that, most likely lived in the region of Northeast Africa or Arabia 250,000 years ago.

75,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated to Eurasia, where they met and interbred with Neanderthals. However, According to a new study published in the journal 'Current Biology', Neanderthals were already carrying human DNA from a much older encounter with Homo sapiens at the time. Over 250,000 years ago, an ancient lineage of Homo sapiens migrated to Europe or the Near East and interbred with Neanderthals. These humans died out over time, leaving a population with Neanderthal ancestry.

Scientists discovered this relic of ancient interbreeding, in which genes from ancient Homo sapiens flowed into Neanderthals. Between 250,000 and 270,000 years ago, this group of archaic homo sapiens left Africa. They were cousins to all living humans, and they were much more like us than Neanderthals. It is often claimed these were failed expansions, yet there is also the possibility that archaic homo sapiens also lived and evolved somewhere in the middle east.

SOURCE:

'Diverse African genomes reveal selection on ancient modern human introgressions in Neanderthals'
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/...