Our unknown cousin
According to the portal "Scientific Russia", new studies of the genetic material of the Denisov people have added even more mystery to the history of the human race.
The first DNA deciphering of Denisovans, conducted in 2010, and comparing them with the genomes of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, showed that the swarthy and brown–eyed inhabitants of the Altai caves are a special branch of the human race, a kind of "cousins" of our ancestors, just like Neanderthals. All three of these hominid species successfully interbred with each other and left their traces in our current genome. Modern inhabitants of Eurasia carry in their DNA 2% of the genes of Neanderthals, and the inhabitants of Oceania inherited 4% of the genes of Denisovans.
Dr. David Reich from Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), said that these first DNA transcripts were of poor quality and contained errors and gaps. Together with a group of anthropologists led by Svante Paabo from the Max Planck Society Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) they conducted new, more complete deciphering of the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans. Scientists obtained DNA for decoding from bones found in the Denisova cave. Reich and his colleagues published sensational new information in the journals The Nature and The New Scientist (Mystery human species emerges from Denisovan genome): in the DNA of Denisovan people, they managed to find another previously unknown admixture from some archaic hominid population.
These unknown creatures interbred with Denisovans about 30 thousand years ago, and they were definitely not Neanderthals. Who these mysterious strangers were is still unknown. According to anthropologists, it could be an "Asian" subspecies of the Heidelberg man, and then this is another revelation: until now it was believed that H. Heidelbergensis became extinct about 250 thousand years ago.
Among the ancestors of modern man, scientists distinguish a certain main line that made up the trunk of our ancestral tree. However, it has been known for a long time that at the same time as our ancestors, other species of intelligent beings lived on Earth, who had their own language, made tools and even entered into mixed marriages. Mark Thomas, a geneticist from University College London, aptly compared the world of our past with the world of the "Lord of the Rings", where many other intelligent, but different from human creatures lived side by side with people.
The discoveries of new species of our ancient relatives continue, and the sensation of 2004 was the "hobbits", or "man of Flores" – a dwarf fossil species of people whose remains were found in Indonesia on the island of Flores in the Liang Bua cave. These creatures were a paradox in every way, including because despite the small brain volume – 400 cubic meters.See, they were able to make stone tools. This refutes the concept of the "brain rubicon" recognized by scientists – 700 cubic cm – the volume of the brain, which was believed to be necessary for intelligent activity – communicating with each other, making tools, etc.
The Denisov man, or "Altai man", is supposed to have moved away from the tree of the general development of the human race the very first, about a million years ago. The common trunk of evolution developed further, and about four hundred thousand years ago it split into two branches – homo sapiens and Neanderthals. The first led to modern humanity, the second, as we know, turned out to be a dead end. Studies show that Denisovans mixed not only with people whose descendants now inhabit Oceania, but also with Neanderthals and with the ancestors of modern residents of China and other parts of East Asia. Now it becomes obvious that they also interbred with a hitherto unknown extinct population of ancient people who lived in Asia more than 30 thousand years ago.
Original article: A surprise in the DNA of the Denisov manPortal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru