%0 Journal Article
%A Dalén, L.
%A Orlando, Ludovic
%A Shapiro, Beth
%A Brandström-Durling, Mikael
%A Quam, Rolf
%A Thomas P. Gilbert, M.
%A Díez Fernández-Lomana, Juan Carlos
%A Willerslev, Eske
%A Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis
%A Götherström, Anders
%T Partial Genetic Turnover in Neandertals: Continuity in the East and Population Replacement in the West
%D 2012
%@ 1537-1719
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/43101
%X Remarkably little is known about the population-level processes leading up to the extinction of the neandertal. To examine this, we use mitochondrial DNA sequences from 13 neandertal individuals, including a novel sequence from northern Spain, to examine neandertal demographic history. Our analyses indicate that recent western European neandertals (<48 kyr) constitute a tightly defined group with low mitochondrial genetic variation in comparison with both eastern and older (>48 kyr) European neandertals. Using control region sequences, Bayesian demographic simulations provide higher support for a model of population fragmentation followed by separate demographic trajectories in subpopulations over a null model of a single stable population. The most parsimonious explanation for these results is that of a population turnover in western Europe during early Marine Isotope Stage 3, predating the arrival of anatomically modern humans in the region.
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