Researchers believe they have found evidence of the early human species known as Homo erectus that might be the genetic link with our Neanderthal ancestors.
Researchers believe they have found evidence of the early human species known as Homo erectus that might be the genetic link with our Neanderthal ancestors.
Analysis of ancient remains found in Denisova Cave in Siberia in 2010 have reportedly produced the most complete DNA sequencing from a Neanderthal, and evidence of a distinct human species that lived 40 thousand years ago.
A tooth and a finger bone from the cave belong to a human species, which scientists named Denisovans, after the cave where they were found.
The toe bone of a Neanderthal woman from around 50 thousand years ago was found in the same cave, providing the material used to complete the genome sequence.
An international team of researchers has published a study that compared the genetic sequences of several human species, including the Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans to better understand how they are all genetically related.
Montgomery Slatkin, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley who worked on the study said: “The paper really shows that the history of humans and hominins during this period was very complicated. There was lots of interbreeding that we know about and probably other interbreeding we haven't yet discovered.”
The data from the study showed how related the different populations of modern humans are to these early human species by percentages of genes.