DNA Analysis Suggests Humans Interbred With Denisovans

ananyo writes "Tens of thousands of years ago modern humans crossed paths with the group of hominins known as the Neandertals. Researchers now think they also met another, less-known group called the Denisovans. The only trace that we have found, however, is a single finger bone and two teeth, but those fragments have been enough to cradle wisps of Denisovan DNA across thousands of years inside a Siberian cave. Now a team of scientists has been able to reconstruct their entire genome from these meager fragments. The analysis supports the idea that Neandertals and Denisovans were more closely related to one another than either was to modern humans and also suggests new ways that early humans may have spread across the globe." wombatmobile linked to an article that focuses on the new techniques used to sequence the DNA of the bone fragments in question.

Comments

Considering...

[camperdave]

Considering what I've seen on the net, it doesn't surprise me in the least that H.Sapiens has interbred with anything and everything. The only surprising element would be whether or not there were offspring.

Re:Considering...

[quenda]

First of all you have to provide a scientific definition of "race".

There are similar problems trying to define species, genus etc. DNA and other new data shows that the tree of life is more complex than we realised.
But a lack of a single simple definiton does not mean that species or race are invalid or unuseful categories.

Re:Considering...

[HiThere]

That's not actually unlikely. And the same reasoning would show why Neanderthal mitochondria don't show up in modern humans.

In particular, it appears (or has appeared to a few anthropoligists several years ago) that Neanderthal women had a smaller birth canal that Cro-Magnon women, so if a normal Cro-Magnon infant were to attempt to be born to a Neanderthal woman, there would likely be a brith problem fatal to both the mother and the child. Going the other way around, however, should work. Neanderthal heads were slimmer than Cro-Magnon heads. And since mitochondria are only inherited along the maternal line, that would explain the absence of Neanderthal mitochondria in modern humans.

This may not be quite what you meant, but it's the way I think it happened.