Cave girl was half Neanderthal, half Denisovan
Once upon a time, two early humans of different ancestry met at a cave in Russia. Some 50,000 years later, scientists have confirmed that they had a daughter together. DNA extracted from bone fragments found in the cave show the girl was the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.
The discovery, reported in Nature, gives a rare insight into the lives of our closest ancient human relatives. Neanderthals and Denisovans were humans like us, but belonged to different species.
"We knew from previous studies that Neanderthals and Denisovans must have occasionally had children together," says Viviane Slon, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in Leipzig, Germany. "But I never thought we would be so lucky as to find an actual offspring of the two groups."
Also at Inverse, NYT, and The Atlantic.
The genome of the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0455-x) (DX)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:03PM (4 children)
Ahhh, the wooshing sound. Often heard when placing an empty sea shell to ones ear or when a liberal opens their mouth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:08PM (3 children)
I'm sorry you were born into a family of idiots, maybe next lifetime you'll get parents that read to you as a child and your reading comprehension won't be so atrocious (bad).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:01PM (2 children)
Wrong again. We are unrelated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:23PM (1 child)
Thank FSM! I like being able to think for myself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @08:35PM
Now go and put your colander on.