Nature Communications (Oct 2017)
A parsimonious neutral model suggests Neanderthal replacement was determined by migration and random species drift
Abstract
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.