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Mum’s a Neanderthal, Dad’s a Denisovan: First discovery of an ancient-human hybrid

Genetic analysis uncovers a direct descendant of two different groups of early humans.
  1. Matthew Warren
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A female who died around 90,000 years ago was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, according to genome analysis of a bone discovered in a Siberian cave. This is the first time scientists have identified an ancient individual whose parents belonged to distinct human groups. The findings were published on 22 August in Nature1.

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Nature 560, 417-418 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06004-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 23 August 2018: This story has been corrected to indicate that European Neanderthals would have travelled east to reach the Altai Mountains, not west.

References

  1. Slon, V. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0455-x (2018).

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