Genetic research has uncovered ancient human lineages inside our own genomes, including Neanderthal and Denisovans DNA. And there’s likely still more to find.
of a Denisovan jawbone found in a cave high on the Tibetan plateau revealed that modern-day Tibetans harbor a key gene, inherited from Denisovans, that allows their bodies to better deal with the punishing effects of altitude.
Genes from Neanderthals have also been linked to how our skins react to UV light, depression, allergies, myocardial infarctions and other conditions. As we come to better understand both our own and other hominins’ DNA, we’ll likely discover more.used sophisticated modeling techniques to sift through genomes and picked out genes from an unknown hominin in the Denisovan genome.
And though we know that humans interbred with Denisovans, recent research indicates that what we call Denisovans may actually have comprisedEven as we learn more about our ancient history, and about the groups of hominins that remain with us today at a genetic level, it’s worth remembering that not everything is set in stone. Our understanding of many facets of human history has changed in recent years, from when we left Africa to how many different groups of ancient humans existed.
So, while we know that the DNA of ancient groups of humans lives on in us, we still can’t say for certain how much, or how many lineages it comes from. The only thing that’s certain is that there’s still much more to find out.
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