Neanderthals used to kiss early humans, scientists discover
New evidence suggests Neanderthals kissed the first humans.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and the Florida Institute of Technology suggests that kissing is much older and much stranger than anyone could have imagined, with its origins dating back more than 21 million years.
Scientists have long known that Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals because traces of their DNA persist in our genomes today; but they have now discovered that these encounters also include delicate lip locking.
“Kissing may sound universal, but it occurs in only 46 percent of human cultures,” the study’s author, Professor Catherine Talbot, wrote in her book Evolution and Human Behavior.
Talbot called this behavior “an evolutionary puzzle” and added: “This is the first step in understanding whether kissing is instinct or invention.”
To solve the mystery, the team did something no archaeologist could do with fossils: they analyzed living primates kissing, such as chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans.
Using Bayesian modeling, a kind of statistical time machine, the researchers simulated kissing behavior across the primate family tree ten million times.
The results point to a common ancestor of great apes that shrunk between 21.5 and 16.9 million years ago.
The model suggests that Neanderthals inherited this ancient behavior, meaning they almost certainly kissed early humans during close encounters.
Combined with previous evidence that the two species were exchanging oral microbes, the scientists say this conclusion is inevitable: The lips of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were locking together.
It is not known how kissing evolved; Because kissing spreads germs, offers no clear survival advantage, and is undetectable in the fossil record, humans continue to do it.
Some researchers believe it evolved from grooming rituals (small lip sucking movements used to pluck insects from their fur) that gradually took on erotic meaning.
Whether tender or opportunistic, experts agree there was room for love in prehistoric relationships.
Archaeologist Professor Paul Pettitt said: “If there was consent, we could assume foreplay, even sensual kissing and cuddling.”
