Recent research published in the journal 'One Plus' indicates that the four current blood types of modern Homo sapiens—A, B, AB, and O—were also present in Neanderthals during prehistoric times.
The study, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of French researchers, suggests that Neanderthals may have been victims of hemolytic disease in infants, resulting from blood incompatibility between mothers and infants, particularly in the case of a Neanderthal mother and a Homo sapiens or Denisovan father. This incompatibility is proposed to have contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals.
The researchers identified the blood types of Neanderthals and Denisovans by analyzing the genomes of four individuals who lived between 40,000 and 100,000 years ago. This discovery provides evidence of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals.
According to the researchers, RH incompatibility could explain the extinction of Neanderthals, as they likely suffered from hemolytic disease during gestation and infancy.
This new information holds significance both medically and demographically, as it allows researchers to trace the origins of human populations and explain their migrations and interbreeding.
One outcome of this research is the identification of the African origin of Neanderthals and Denisovans. The Denisovan genome analyzed in this study belonged to blood type O.
To achieve these results, the researchers utilized ancient genomes from the genetics department at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, examining the DNA of three Neanderthals and one Denisovan to search for current blood group DNA in their genomes. This analysis, according to geneticist Stéphane Mezier, is surprisingly unprecedented.