Completed DNA analysis of Altai hominid
Geneticists have completed the DNA analysis of a fossilized fragment of a finger found in 2008 in the Denisovsky cave in Altai. The results were unexpected, perhaps in the future school textbooks of biology will have to be rewritten, and indeed our views on human history will be revised.
The fact is that DNA from this finger does not fit into any of the known hominid species. This is not homo sapiens, and not a parallel branch of Neanderthals with homo erectus. It turns out that quite recently (30-48 thousand years ago), that is, in the Stone Age, not only homo sapiens lived on our planet with Neanderthals, but also some other humanoids. And, at least in Altai, they all lived together.
The genetic material was handled by a joint team of scientists from different countries, including the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as scientific institutions of the United States and Austria. The results were published yesterday, March 24, 2010, in the journal Nature.
Researchers from the Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology concluded that a finger DNA sample belongs to a hominid who lived in Altai from 30 to 48 thousand years ago.
')
Previous excavations in Altai and previously found remains of bones suggest that modern people and Neanderthals mastered this territory at least 125 thousand years ago.
By the way, for the first time the classification of the hominid found is performed using DNA analysis. Previously, this was done on the remnants of bones, which was not very reliable (that is, this finger found in Altai would not make any discovery). However, in 2009, the mitochondrial genome was collected for both homo sapiens and Neanderthal, so now we can compare all new findings with these samples, and thanks to new biotechnologies, many more discoveries will be made in anthropology.
The DNA of a sample from the Denisovskaya cave was compared not only with the above-mentioned samples, but also with DNA samples of 54 modern humans, as well as a sample of a person who lived in Siberia about 30 thousand years ago, with six Neanderthals about 40 thousand years old chimpanzees and bonobos. To no avail: the pattern is different from all of them. In particular, the difference with human DNA is twice as large as that of Neanderthal DNA.
Computer analysis of DNA, taking into account the transfer of individual fragments of chromosomes from species to species, made it possible to roughly calculate the rate of evolution. It turns out that the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees lived 6 million years ago. Then, the common ancestors of the people, Neanderthals and hominids from the Denisov Cave lived from 779.300 to 1.313.500 years ago. And finally, the common ancestors of people and Neanderthals lived from 321,200 to 618,000 years ago.
Changes may be made to this classification when DNA samples of the so-called Homo floresiensis (also known as the “hobbit”), found in 2003 in Indonesia, are analyzed. The hobbit genome is not yet deciphered.
Now anthropologists are beginning to decline to believe that over the past 6-7 million years, there have been at least 20 species of hominids related to modern people on Earth. In this case, there certainly were areas where they lived next door at the same time.
The fact is that DNA from this finger does not fit into any of the known hominid species. This is not homo sapiens, and not a parallel branch of Neanderthals with homo erectus. It turns out that quite recently (30-48 thousand years ago), that is, in the Stone Age, not only homo sapiens lived on our planet with Neanderthals, but also some other humanoids. And, at least in Altai, they all lived together.
The genetic material was handled by a joint team of scientists from different countries, including the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as scientific institutions of the United States and Austria. The results were published yesterday, March 24, 2010, in the journal Nature.
Researchers from the Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology concluded that a finger DNA sample belongs to a hominid who lived in Altai from 30 to 48 thousand years ago.
')
Previous excavations in Altai and previously found remains of bones suggest that modern people and Neanderthals mastered this territory at least 125 thousand years ago.
By the way, for the first time the classification of the hominid found is performed using DNA analysis. Previously, this was done on the remnants of bones, which was not very reliable (that is, this finger found in Altai would not make any discovery). However, in 2009, the mitochondrial genome was collected for both homo sapiens and Neanderthal, so now we can compare all new findings with these samples, and thanks to new biotechnologies, many more discoveries will be made in anthropology.
The DNA of a sample from the Denisovskaya cave was compared not only with the above-mentioned samples, but also with DNA samples of 54 modern humans, as well as a sample of a person who lived in Siberia about 30 thousand years ago, with six Neanderthals about 40 thousand years old chimpanzees and bonobos. To no avail: the pattern is different from all of them. In particular, the difference with human DNA is twice as large as that of Neanderthal DNA.
Computer analysis of DNA, taking into account the transfer of individual fragments of chromosomes from species to species, made it possible to roughly calculate the rate of evolution. It turns out that the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees lived 6 million years ago. Then, the common ancestors of the people, Neanderthals and hominids from the Denisov Cave lived from 779.300 to 1.313.500 years ago. And finally, the common ancestors of people and Neanderthals lived from 321,200 to 618,000 years ago.
Changes may be made to this classification when DNA samples of the so-called Homo floresiensis (also known as the “hobbit”), found in 2003 in Indonesia, are analyzed. The hobbit genome is not yet deciphered.
Now anthropologists are beginning to decline to believe that over the past 6-7 million years, there have been at least 20 species of hominids related to modern people on Earth. In this case, there certainly were areas where they lived next door at the same time.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/88884/
All Articles