Scientists find first known family of Neanderthals in Russian cave 

Scientists found the first known Neanderthal family while analyzing fossils in a cave in Russia, according to a new report published on Wednesday. 

The findings, published in the journal Nature, help paint a picture of what life was like for our extinct ancestors that roamed around Eurasia thousands of years ago. 

A DNA analysis of the fossils found in the Siberian cave called Chagyrskaya shows that a Neanderthal family was living there, made up of a father, a teenage daughter, and others who were probably cousins.

Scientists believe the family was part of a band of 11 Neanderthals that were found together in the cave. They believe they all died together, most likely from starvation. 

Among the scientists that conducted the study was Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist who has been studying Neanderthals for the past 25 years. He won the Nobel Prize earlier this month for his contribution to the field. 

“I would not have thought we would be able to detect a father and daughter from bone fragments, or Neanderthal DNA in cave sediments, or any other of the things that are now becoming almost routine,” said Dr. Pääbo, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “It has been an amazing journey.”

Pääbo and his team were able to show the kinship between the Neanderthal remains found in the cave by scanning the DNA of the fossils for tiny variations. If the remains shared enough variations, they are considered first-degree relatives. 

Scientists have been digging and unearthing fragments at the Chagyrskaya cave since 2007, finding several insights into what Neanderthal life was like. Researchers also found 90,000 stone tools in the cave. 

Researchers believe the cave was a seasonal home for the Neanderthals, who made their way to Siberia every year to hunt bison.