A team of scientists from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, a joint center of Pompeu Fabra University and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (Spain), has discovered a new type of currently extinct hominid that lived in Southeast Asia.
It is a new species of hominid, not described until now , and that interbred with modern humans tens of thousands of years ago.
The researchers performed a genetic analysis on a group of individuals from the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean . The results revealed that their DNA contained fragments that did not correspond to modern humans who left Africa approximately 80,000 years ago. Also, they were not Denisovans or Neanderthals. It is an extinct hominid that shares a common ancestor with the other two but with a different history.
“We have already found fragments of extinct hominin DNA forming part of the modern human genome. In the near future we hope to obtain the complete genome from fossil remains ”, explains Jaume Bertranpetit, leader of the work.
The work has found genetic evidence that the small stature of the inhabitants of the island of Andaman is not due to the fact that the first inhabitants were short in stature and therefore their current descendants as well, but is the product of an evolutionary process of adaptation and natural selection.
“On a small island there is no place for the entire food chain; therefore, the large predators must disappear and the lower-level animals become small, since it gives them selective advantages “, clarifies Bertranpetit.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics.
