Science News: DNA data offer evidence of unknown extinct human relative
"People from Melanesia, a region in the South Pacific encompassing Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands, may carry genetic evidence of a previously unknown extinct hominid species, Ryan Bohlender reported October 20 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. That species is probably not Neandertal or Denisovan, but a different, related hominid group, said Bohlender, a statistical geneticist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “We’re missing a population or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” he said.
This mysterious relative was probably from a third branch of the hominid family tree that produced Neandertals and Denisovans, an extinct distant cousin of Neandertals. While many Neandertal fossils have been found in Europe and Asia, Denisovans are known only from DNA from a finger bone and a couple of teeth found in a Siberian cave (SN: 12/12/15, p. 14).
Bohlender isn’t the first to suggest that remnants of archaic human relatives may have been preserved in human DNA even though no fossil remains have been found. In 2012, another group of researchers suggested that some people in Africa carry DNA heirlooms from an extinct hominid species (SN: 9/8/12, p. 9)."
It has long been proposed by anthropologists that Papuans and Australian aborigines inherited some DNA from the descendants of Homo floresiensis. Since its DNA has not been tested yet, that could be the mysterious third branch of extinct hominids.
Since Denisovan was found in Siberia, it is likely that early hominids that left Africa split in a North Asian and a South Asian groups, divided by the Himalayas. So we could have three geographic groups: Neanderthals in western Eurasia, Denisovans in North Asia and Flores in South Asia.
"People from Melanesia, a region in the South Pacific encompassing Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands, may carry genetic evidence of a previously unknown extinct hominid species, Ryan Bohlender reported October 20 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. That species is probably not Neandertal or Denisovan, but a different, related hominid group, said Bohlender, a statistical geneticist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “We’re missing a population or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” he said.
This mysterious relative was probably from a third branch of the hominid family tree that produced Neandertals and Denisovans, an extinct distant cousin of Neandertals. While many Neandertal fossils have been found in Europe and Asia, Denisovans are known only from DNA from a finger bone and a couple of teeth found in a Siberian cave (SN: 12/12/15, p. 14).
Bohlender isn’t the first to suggest that remnants of archaic human relatives may have been preserved in human DNA even though no fossil remains have been found. In 2012, another group of researchers suggested that some people in Africa carry DNA heirlooms from an extinct hominid species (SN: 9/8/12, p. 9)."
It has long been proposed by anthropologists that Papuans and Australian aborigines inherited some DNA from the descendants of Homo floresiensis. Since its DNA has not been tested yet, that could be the mysterious third branch of extinct hominids.
Since Denisovan was found in Siberia, it is likely that early hominids that left Africa split in a North Asian and a South Asian groups, divided by the Himalayas. So we could have three geographic groups: Neanderthals in western Eurasia, Denisovans in North Asia and Flores in South Asia.