Few fossils allow us to describe theDenisovan hominid, related to Neanderthals and modern humans. So far the only known remains – which may have belonged to a girl – are a phalanx of the little finger and two molars discovered in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia. But a new high-resolution genomic sequence, similar to that carried out in the genomes of living people, has made it possible to obtain detailed information on these archaic humans. Details are published in the magazineScience.
According to the SINC agency Fernando Racimo, co-author of the study and researcher in the Evolutionary Genetics department of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,the new analysis suggests that modern human groups in Oceania (or their ancestors) must have hybridized with archaic human groups genetically close to the sequenced individual. The researchers compared the Denisovan genome with that of Neanderthals and 11 modern humans from around the world to confirm what they already assumed: Aboriginal human group populations on Southeast Asian islands like Papua New Guinea, and Australia, share more. genetic variants with Denisova than other human populations.
The analysis also shows that the genomes of the East Asian and South American populations include slightly more genes from Neanderthals than Europeans. “The excess of archaic material in East Asia is more related to Neanderthals than Denisovans, so we estimate that the proportion of Neanderthal ancestry in Europe is lower than in East Asia,” they comment from the German institute.
In addition to confirming thatthe girl had brown hair and eyes and dark skin, genetic information reveals thatIt was more like Neanderthals than modern humans. The results obtained also emphasize that the genetic variation of Denisovans was very low compared to current humans. And this is because initially a small population of these hominids grew “rapidly while expanding over a wide geographic range,” according to the authors.
The genome sequence has made it possible to generate a list with some100,000 recent changes in the human genome after the separation of Denisovans. According to the team of scientists, some of these changes affect genes associated with the development of brain function and the nervous system “and allow us to understand what makes us so unique”, observes Racimo. Others affect the skin, eyes and dental morphology.
