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[F]oxnews.com/science/extinct-human-species-lived-together-in-siberian-cave-new-research-shows reports that "Bones recently found in a Siberian cave have given researchers a new glimpse into the timeline of an extinct human species. The species – known as Denisovans – at one time lived alongside Neanderthals in the same cave, the evidence showed."
A new study revealed that the Denisovans lived in the cave from at least 200,000 to less than 50,000 years ago. The team used optical dating– a process that measures the time since sediment was exposed to sunlight.
From https://www.inverse.com/article/52926-denisova-cave-dating-sediment-culture
Both Neanderthals and Denisovans belong to the genus Homo, though it's still not entirely clear whether the Denisovans are a separate species or a subspecies of modern humans — after all, we only have six fossil fragments to go on. Nevertheless, we're one step closer to finding out. Both studies, published in Nature, describe new discoveries in the Denisova Cave of the Altai Mountains, where excavations have continued for the past 40 years. Those efforts have revealed ancient human remains carrying the DNA of both the Denisovans and Neanderthals who made the high-ceilinged cave their home — sometimes, even having children together.
More from www.abc.net.au.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:47AM
Nor would we expect them to. Neanderthal markers are almost by definition markers found only outside of Africa. They evolved in what we now call the near east and mostly moved to the east and the northwest from there.
However, these 'markers' insofar as I have been able to substantiate are not indicators of ancestry. They're active traits evolutionarily, so regardless of what you start with, over some generations you will approximate the same set of traits regardless given so many generations. Things like lighter skin to make more vitamin D in an area where the risk of skin cancer was much lower.
Ancestry can only be reliably inferred from Y and MTDNA (and even those will only allow you to infer a small portion of your ancestry.)
This being insufficient for human needs, we have all sorts of people pushing unreliable comparisons. But they are, wait for it, unreliable.
And parallel evolution can definitely produce the same gene, the same trait, with no close relationship. Marsupials versus mammals. At least a half dozen clear examples of this.
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