When you think of the Jersey Shore it's not hard to next think of Neanderthals, but this isn't that Jersey and these aren't the tan spiky-haired, booze-guzzling, womanizing, small cranial, mouth breathers either. We're talking about actual Neanderthals from 40,000 years ago and Neanderthal teeth found in 1910 in a cave on the island of Jersey, which is located between England and France.
The significance is that these teeth reveal signs of interbreeding between Neanderthals and our own species, scientists say. Neanderthals disappeared 40,000 years ago, overlapping with modern humans (homo sapiens) for about 5,000 years. Check your 23andMe, that's why a lot of us have that 2% Neanderthal genome swimming in us. Picture Neanderthals and homo sapiens throwing beach ragers together.
UK scientists have re-examined these teeth using modern technology to help them determine the links to modern humans, and what caused Neanderthal extinction. One explanation is not that the Neanderthal went extinct but possibly became absorbed by the vast numbers of modern humans arriving from Africa.
"This now needs to be a scenario that's seriously considered, alongside others, and it's going to emerge as we get more understanding of the process of genetic admixture," Dr Matt Pope, from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL), told the BBC News. "But certainly, that word 'extinct' now starts to lose its meaning where you can see multiple episodes of admixture and the retention of a significant proportion of Neanderthal DNA in humans beyond sub-Saharan Africa."
Exactly, the Jersey Shore bro didn't just disappear. He mixed in and fed a whole new species of douchey knuckle-draggers destined for reality show stardom.
