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Tuesday, May. 18, 2021

Have geneticists discovered remains of an ancient human whose parents were two different species?

Stevie Rosignol-Cortez, Gigafact
yes

Paleontologists discovered that two different species of humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans, interbred when they found genetic traces of both in a 90,000-year-old bone sample of a teenage female. Nature first published the discovery in 2018.

While scientists have long suspected that the species had mixed, the discovery was the first time a direct offspring was identified. The remains, which were found in Denisova cave in Siberia, suggest that the species mixing was common at the time, and help scientists understand where and when these ancient humans migrated. The DNA from the teenager’s mother, a later Neanderthal descendent from Europe, suggests that Neanderthals migrated across Eurasia “sometime after 120,000 years ago.”

Unlike Neanderthals, whose remains are more common, the understanding of Denisovans come from three teeth and a pinky finger, all discovered in the Siberian cave.

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