After an analysis of 40,000-year-old DNA, it has been unveiled that modern humans and Neanderthals have interbred in Europe.

Researchers have carried out an analysis of a jawbone found in Romanian cave system. Earlier, anthropologists have found that early humans had interbred with Neanderthals around 55,000 years ago in the Middle East.

However, as per the new finding it has been found that the interbreeding had also taken place in Europe as well. The study researchers have published the analysis of the genetic material taken out from the jawbone belonging to an early Homo sapiens settler in Europe.

Upon assessment, it was found that 6-9% of the individual’s genome is from Neanderthals. Currently, Europeans have between 2-4% in their genome. The researchers affirmed that observing the size of Neanderthal presence in the genome, it can be said that the interbreeding between the two species has taken place a few generations before the individual was born.

There could be a possibility that modern humans have interbred with Neanderthals after leaving their African homeland. Earlier, it was considered the spread of Home sapiens could have been due to the decline of Neanderthals either due to warfare of the transmission of disease.

But the recent researches indicate that there could have been other factors as well. Study’s co-author Prof David Reich from the Harvard Medical School said, “In the last few years, we've documented interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, but we never thought we'd be so lucky to find someone so close to that event”.