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Modern Humans Had Sex With Denisovan Cousins Too, Not Just Neanderthals


Coss
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It is by now a well-established (but not so well-known) fact that us modern humans, Homo sapiens, spent a lot of time in much the same places that Neanderthals were in, and that the two human species not only intermingled but also interbred. It turns out that modern humans also produced babies with another archaic human species, the Denisovans, at least twice in history.

 

The existence of Denisovans was announced in 2010, when scientists said that bones fragments found in the Denisova cave in Russia’s Siberia was not from Homo sapiens or Homo neanderthalensis, even though both the species had been known to have inhabited the cave.

 

In a paper published Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers explained they found “two distinct episodes of Denisovan genetic intermixing, or admixing, between†Homo sapiens and Denisovans, who are sometimes classified as a subspecies of modern humans.

 

Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, arrived at this conclusion by comparing the whole genome sequences of modern humans against our Denisovan ancestors. They chose populations from present-day East Asia and Oceania regions to make the comparison, since those populations have Denisovan genes.

 

“What was known already was that Oceanian individuals, notably Papuan individuals, have significant amounts of Denisovan ancestry. The genomes of modern Papuan individuals contain approximately 5 percent Denisovan ancestry,†Sharon Browning from the university and senior author of the study, said in a statement Thursday.

 

The presence of Denisovan genomes in other parts of Asia was attributed to migration from Oceania......

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/modern-humans-had-sex-denisovan-cousins-too-not-just-neanderthals-2662949

 

 

This graphic below illustrates the DNA migration.

 

 

denisovan-genome.jpg

 

Long before DNA was easily examined, I'd often thought, that the genetics of modern humans was a mixed bag.

 

I've seen Scottish Rugby players, that but for their white skin and red hair, could have been family members of Papuan and Fijian blokes I've met.

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