Nature Communications (Oct 2017)

A parsimonious neutral model suggests Neanderthal replacement was determined by migration and random species drift

  • Oren Kolodny,
  • Marcus W. Feldman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01043-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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The replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans is thought to have been due to environmental factors, a selective advantage of modern humans, or both. Here, Kolodny and Feldman develop a neutral model of species drift showing that rapid Neanderthal replacement can be explained parsimoniously by simple migration dynamics.