Summary
Estatuas Cave in northern Spain was a hive of activity 105,000 years ago. Artifacts show that its inhabitants of Neanderthal had stone tools, felled deer, and possibly made fire. They also threw out subtle clues on the cave floor, bled and excreted: their own DNA. Researchers report this week that dirt from Estatuas yielded the first nuclear DNA from an ancient human obtained from sediments. Previous studies have reported shorter, more abundant human mitochondrial DNA from cave floors, but nuclear DNA, previously available only at bones and teeth, can be much more informative. The series reveals the genetic identity and gender of ancient cave dwellers and shows that one group of Neanderthals replaced another in the Spanish cave about 100,000 years ago, perhaps after a climate cooling.