Mystery human species emerges from Denisovan genome

[Ichingcarpenter]

The story of human evolution just got even more bizarre. The genome of an extinct hominin species, the Denisovans, contains unusual snippets of DNA that seem to have come from yet another group.

It could be evidence of an entirely new species of hominin, as yet unknown to science. Alternatively, it could be our first genetic record of one of the many species known only from their fossils.

The new hominin has left its traces in the genome of a Denisovan, an extinct hominin known to exist from a finger bone and two teeth found in a Siberian cave. Nobody knows what Denisovans looked like because there are so few fossils. But geneticists have managed to sequence their entire genome to a high degree of accuracy.

David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, has now taken a close look at the Denisovan genome and found that some stretches of it don't fit. He presented his findings at a Royal Society discussion meeting on ancient DNA in London, UK, on Monday.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24603-mystery-human-species-emerges-from-denisovan-genome.html#.UoubIGRoSpA


Well.... now we have another unknown cousin somewhere and some place in time.

[Faux pas]

1. Fascinating

thanks for posting!

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. analysis suggests interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and a mysterious arc

The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a different archaic human group, the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting at the Royal Society in London. They suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups living in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet unknown human ancestor from Asia.

“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work.

The first Neanderthal1 and the Denisovan2 genome sequences revolutionized the study of ancient human history, not least because they showed that these groups interbred with anatomically modern humans, contributing to the genetic diversity of many people alive today.

All humans whose ancestry originates outside of Africa owe about 2% of their genome to Neanderthals; and certain populations living in Oceania, such as Papua New Guineans and Australian Aboriginals, got about 4% of their DNA from interbreeding between their ancestors and Denisovans, who are named after the cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains where they were discovered. The cave contains remains deposited there between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago.


http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-rampant-sex-lives-1.14196

[Enthusiast]

3. I am really fascinated by this. Thanks, Ichingcarpenter.

And for the second article also. I am looking forward to new discoveries.

[sakabatou]

4. Science truly is amazing