140,000-year-old skeleton shows earliest interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals

Scientists have uncovered the world s earliest fossil showing both Neanderthal and Homo sapiens features: a five-year-old child from Israel s Skhul Cave dating back 140,000 years. This discovery pushes back the timeline of human interbreeding, proving that Neanderthals and modern humans were already mixing long before Europe s later encounters.

source https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250821094434.htm