Human evolution; more about Denisovans (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, December 14, 2019, 00:01 (1805 days ago) @ David Turell

Denisovans seemed to have been all over the place:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/heres-what-2019-scientific-disco...

"Scientists have since determined that Denisovans interbred with both modern humans and Neanderthals. In April, a new study of 161 modern human genomes from 14 island groups in Island Southeast Asia and New Guinea region led by Murray Cox of Massey University in New Zealand was published. The results indicate that modern humans interbred with at least three Denisovan groups that were geographically isolated from each other in deep time.

"One of these Denisovan lineages is found in East Asians, whose DNA indicates a close relationship to the fossil remains found in Denisova Cave. The other two Denisovan lineages diverged from each other around 363,000 years ago and split off from the first lineage about 283,000 years ago. Traces of one of these two lineages is mainly found in modern Papuans, while the other is found in people over a much larger area of Asia and Oceania. The implication? Denisovans are actually three different groups, with more genetic diversity in less than a dozen bones that currently comprise their entire fossil sample than in the more than 7.7 billion modern humans alive today."

Comment: All we still have is fragments of some bones like fingers but no large enough finds to get some idea of how they have have looked, but they sure were active.