by ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN
Scientists have dated the skeleton of an ancient child that caused a stir when it was first discovered because it carries features from both humans and Neanderthals.
The child’s remains were discovered 27 years ago in a rock shelter called Lagar Velho in central Portugal. The nearly complete skeleton was stained red, and scientists think it may have been wrapped in a painted animal skin before burial.
When the humanlike child was discovered, scientists noted that some of their attributes—including body proportions and jawbone—looked Neanderthal. The researchers suggested that the child was descended from populations in which humans and Neanderthals mated and mixed. That was a radical notion at the time, but advances in genetics have since proven those populations existed—and people today still carry Neanderthal DNA.
But trying to figure out when exactly the child lived has been difficult. Small roots had grown through the bones and contamination—from plants or other sources—made it impossible for scientists to use traditional carbon dating to measure the child’s age. They instead dated the charcoal and animal bones around the skeleton to between 27,700 and 29,700 years ago.
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