Ralf Schmitz

TL;DR: The genomic data suggest that Neandertals mixed with modern human ancestors some 120,000 years ago, leaving traces of Ne andertal DNA in contemporary humans, suggesting that gene flow from Neand Bertals into the ancestors of non-Africans occurred before the divergence of Eurasian groups from each other.

TL;DR: This work uses mitochondrial genome sequences from ten securely dated ancient modern humans spanning 40,000 years as calibration points for the mitochondrial clock, thus yielding a direct estimate of the mitochondrial substitution rate and implies a separation of non-Africans from the most closely related sub-Saharan African mitochondrial DNAs that occurred less than 62-95 kya.

TL;DR: Targeted sequencing improves Neandertal mitochondrial DNA retrieval and reveals low diversity among individuals, and together with analyses of mtDNA protein evolution, these data suggest that the long-term effective population size of Ne andertals was smaller than that of modern humans and extant great apes.

TL;DR: The findings imply that domestic dogs are the culmination of a process that initiated with European hunter-gatherers and the canids with whom they interacted, and molecular dating suggests an onset of domestication there 18,800 to 32,100 years ago.

TL;DR: It is suggested that at least some Late Pleistocene humans regarded dogs not just materialistically, but may have developed emotional and caring bonds for their dogs, as reflected by the survival of this dog, quite possibly through human care.