The paper is public.

https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(24)00177-0
September 11, 2024

Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals
before their extinction

Highlights
• We present the discovery of a Neanderthal body
and its genome
• It is one of the last representatives of these
populations in Eurasia
• It belongs to an unknown lineage, isolated for
50 ka
• It is similar to Gibraltar Neanderthals, with
whom it forms a specific branch

Summary
Neanderthal genomes have been recovered from
sites across Eurasia, painting an increasingly
complex picture of their populations’ structure
that mostly indicates that late European
Neanderthals belonged to a single metapopulation
with no significant evidence of population
structure. Here, we report the discovery of a
late Neanderthal individual, nicknamed “Thorin,”
from Grotte Mandrin in Mediterranean France, and
his genome. These dentognathic fossils, including
a rare example of distomolars, are associated
with a rich archeological record of Neanderthal
final technological traditions in this region
∼50–42 thousand years ago. Thorin’s genome reveals
a relatively early divergence of ∼105 ka with
other late Neanderthals. Thorin belonged to a
population with a small group size that showed no
genetic introgression with other known late
European Neanderthals, revealing some 50 ka of
genetic isolation of his lineage despite them
living in neighboring regions. These results have
important implications for resolving competing
hypotheses about causes of the disappearance of
the Neanderthals.

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