A scientific paper has researched Gibraltar’s Neanderthal skull and its genetic similarities to a late Neanderthal found in France.

The research was published as a bioRxiv preprint and is titled ‘A late Neanderthal reveals genetic isolation in their populations before extinction’.

The research by an international team was led by French archaeologist Dr Ludovik Slimak and reports the discovery of a late Neanderthal individual, nicknamed ‘Thorin’, from Grotte Mandrin in Mediterranean France, and his genome.

Thorin is associated with a rich archaeological record of the last Neanderthals in the region of the Rhone Valley around 50 to 42 thousand years ago.

“The surprise came when analyses of the mitochondrial genome showed that Thorin was genetically closer to ‘Nana’, the nickname given to the Gibraltar 1 skull from Forbes’ Quarry in 1848, than to any other known Neanderthal,” said a statement from the Gibraltar Government.

“This revelation threw everyone by complete surprise – Thorin was closer to Nana than even to the western European Neanderthals who were geographically closer to him.”

“The genetic relationship observed between Thorin and Nana indicates that the Gibraltar Neanderthals were members of an extended southwest European population, one that was isolated from the classic Neanderthals and which held out in pockets until their final disappearance.”

Professor Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar National Museum first found out late autumn when Dr Slimak and a French television crew visited Gibraltar.

“This is so exciting,” Prof Finlayson said.

“Here we have evidence of an apparent isolation between certain late groups of Neanderthals from the mainstream western European population.”

“The Gibraltar Neanderthals were more closely connected to those from Mediterranean France than to those from western Europe, some of whom probably lived closer to Gibraltar than Thorin, and they seem to have been part of a late surviving and fragmented population.”

“This raises many questions, some of which I have been pondering for months, and which is going to open up fantastic new avenues of research and collaboration.”

Minister for Heritage, Dr John Cortes, called the research fascinating.

“The work led by the Gibraltar National Museum at Gorham’s Cave Complex World Heritage Site is key to this proliferation of knowledge,” he said.

“I am sure that we are all justly proud of Gibraltar’s contribution in this field.”

The paper is available online: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/ 10.1101/2023.04.10.536015v1