Interbreeding with Neanderthals may be responsible for modern-day brain condition, SFU study finds
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-Sep-2025 23:11 ET (7-Sep-2025 03:11 GMT/UTC)
A new Simon Fraser University-led study reveals interbreeding between humans and their ancient cousins, Neanderthals, as the likely origin of a neurological condition estimated to impact up to one per cent of people today.
The study, published this week in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, was led by Kimberly Plomp, a recent postdoctoral fellow at SFU and Mark Collard, the Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies and a professor in the Department of Archaeology. Their findings suggest that Chiari Malformation Type 1, a serious and sometimes fatal neurological condition, may be linked to Neanderthal genes that entered the human gene pool through interbreeding tens of thousands of years ago.
A medieval literary puzzle which has stumped scholars including M.R. James for 130 years has finally been solved. Cambridge scholars now believe the Song of Wade, a long lost treasure of English culture, was a chivalric romance not a monster-filled epic. The discovery solves the most famous mystery in Chaucer's writings and provides rare evidence of a medieval preacher referencing pop culture in a sermon.
Archaeologists from the University of Houston working at Caracol in Belize have uncovered the burial of Te K’ab Chaak, the first ruler of this ancient Maya city and the founder of its royal dynasty, marking the first identifiable ruler's tomb found in over four decades of work in Caracol, the largest Maya archaeological site in Belize and in the Maya lowlands.