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ScienceHuman HistoryStudy Suggests Early Humans Had Even More Interspecies Sex
Before we became the only remaining humans on the planet, Homo sapiens mated with Neanderthals and the closely related Denisovans. New research is now revealing that the common ancestor of Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred with its own predecessor, a population of “superarchaic” hominids. This new model suggests a rewritten history of human evolution, and, if … Continued
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Tech NewsHow This Decade of Archaeology Changed What We Know About Human Origins
Unlike humans living today, our distant ancestors exerted a very small footprint on the planet, leaving barely anything behind to chronicle their time on Earth. With the discovery of each new skull fragment, femur, and stone tool, however, archaeologists are methodically piecing together the fractured history of our species and other hominins closely related to … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryModern Humans Inherited Even More DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans Than We Thought
A comprehensive analysis of DNA from modern Melanesian people suggests an assortment of mutated genes inherited from extinct Neanderthals and Denisovans provided evolutionary advantages, such as the ability to consume new foods and avoid infections, among other important benefits. Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct some 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, but not before these closely … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryArchaeologists Are Learning More About Who and What Lived in This Famous Siberian Cave
For thousands of years, Siberia’s Denisova Cave was home to various bands of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans. But as new research shows, animals occupied this cave more frequently than not, showcasing the pains, perils, and complexities of paleolithic life. “Basically, the story that we are telling is full of shit,” said Mike Morley, an … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryFacial Reconstruction Shows What the Enigmatic Denisovans Might Have Looked Like
A pinky finger bone, some teeth, and a lower jaw. That’s all the physical evidence we have of the mysterious Denisovans, an extinct group of hominins closely related to the Neanderthals. Remarkable new research offers a physical reconstruction of the Denisovans based on genetic evidence, providing our first potential glimpse of this ancient human species. … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryAnalysis of Denisovan Fossil Reveals a Distinctly Human-Like Finger
Very little is known about the Denisovans—a mysterious group of hominins that lived alongside early humans and Neanderthals during the last Ice Age. New research has revealed a Denisovan finger bone that’s unexpectedly human-like in shape—an odd observation, given the close relation of Denisovans to Neanderthals, whose fingers differed quite a bit from ours. To … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryAstonishing Denisovan Fossil Discovery Traced Back to Buddhist Monk
The archaeology world is abuzz today with news of the first Denisovan fossil found outside of Siberia. The 160,000-year-old jawbone was uncovered by a Buddhist monk in a Chinese cave nearly 40 years ago—an aspect of this story that’s as intriguing as it is frustrating. To quickly recap this breaking news, a partial jaw bone … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryJawbone Fossil Reveals More About the Denisovans, a Mysterious Species that Mated With Modern Humans
In 2010, archaeologists found evidence of a previously unknown hominin, the Denisovans, in a Siberian cave. Researchers are now reporting the discovery of a 160,000-year-old Denisovan jawbone pulled from a cave on the Tibetan Plateau. The fossil is now the first evidence of this mysterious human species outside of Siberia, and the earliest evidence of … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryNeanderthals and Denisovans Shared a Siberian Cave for Thousands of Years, New Research Suggests
Denisova cave in southern Siberia was home to Neanderthals and Denisovans for thousands of years, but questions remain about the timing of their stay. A pair of new studies traces the history of archaic human occupation at the site, showing who lived there and when—including a possible era during which the two now-extinct species hung … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
AI Finds Traces of a Lost Species in Human DNA
Buried deep within the DNA of Asian individuals is a genetic clue pointing to the existence of an unknown human ancestor. Remarkably, it wasn’t a human who reached this startling conjecture, but rather an artificially intelligent algorithm. Welcome to archaeology in the 21st century. New research published last week in Nature Communications suggests a yet-to-be … Continued
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Tech News
Ancient Human Groups Mated With the Mysterious Denisovans at Least Twice
Genetic analysis suggests two populations of Denisovans—an extinct group of hominids closely related to Neanderthals—existed outside of Africa during the Pleistocene, and that both of these populations interacted and interbred with anatomically modern humans. Virtually everyone knows about Neanderthals, but very few of us know about their distant cousins, the Denisovans. These extinct hominids were … Continued
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Tech News
Key Mutations Show How Tibetans Thrive at High Elevations
At altitudes of 15,000 feet, Tibetans live in environments that would incapacitate most humans. New research has uncovered several genetic mutations that appear to be responsible for these high-altitude superpowers—including a trait inherited from an extinct human species. Geneticist Chad Huff of the University of Texas, along with colleagues, have uncovered variants of five distinct … Continued
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io9Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2013
From intergalactic neutrinos and invisible brains, to the creation of miniature human “organoids,” 2013 was a remarkable year for scientific discovery. Here are 17 of the biggest scientific breakthroughs, innovations and advances of 2013. Voyager I Leaves the Solar System Escaping the solar system is no mean feat. For 36 years, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft … Continued
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io9
A chart that sums up who had sex with whom during the Pleistocene
Call it the Pleistocene hanky panky chart. Now that scientists have sequenced a complete Neanderthal genome, we have more evidence than ever that early Homo sapiens had children with Neanderthals and Denisovans tens of thousands of years ago. This chart, from Nature, is part of a paper published this week by evolutionary biologist Svante Pääbo’s … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
New DNA sequence shows that Neanderthals liked incest
Berkeley scientists just generated a pristine genome sequence of Neanderthal DNA—the most complete ever created—and what they found might gross you out. It might also blow your mind. The DNA sequence came from a 50,000 year old Neanderthal bone, a woman’s toe to be exact. The scientists compared it with DNA from modern humans as … Continued
