In honor of WorldSoilDay, read more about an extensive analysis of DNA in the soils of Siberia’s Denisova Cave that reveals it hosted Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans—possibly at the same time. ⬇️
of the cave, the researchers dug out 728 soil samples. After 2 years of analysis, in which they isolated and sequenced the samples, the researchers found human DNA in 175 of them. That makes the study"the largest and most systematic of its kind," says Katerina Douka, an archaeological scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History who was not involved in the work.
The last to arrive were modern humans, who showed up about 45,000 years ago. The soil layer that corresponds with that period contained DNA from all three human groups, the researchers report."The time periods [of each layer] are quite large, so we can't concretely say if they overlapped or not," Zavala says. But, Douka adds,"I cannot think of another site where three human species lived through time.
had been there. But no one knew they had arrived as early as 45,000 years ago—and overlapped with both of our archaic cousins."It suggests a more complicated interplay between archaic and modern humans," says Ron Pinhasi, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Vienna who was not involved with the work.
The soil samples also yielded DNA from many species of animals. About 170,000 years ago, the climate went from warmer to colder, and Neanderthals moved in, so did different species of hyenas and bears. It's the combination of genomic data from both the fossils and the soil samples that really makes the new work stand out, Pinhasi says."It's a superpromising direction [for future work]." Douka agrees, and says the new study should help ancient soil DNA become"a mainstream archaeological tool." She is already amazed at the progress that it, combined with other studies, has made possible.
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