Geneticists Find Girl With Parents From Two Different Species Through Ancient DNA Analysis

Imagine discovering that your parents were not even the same species! That's exactly what geneticists studying ancient DNA recently found when they uncovered the remains of a young girl whose mother was a Neanderthal and father was a Denisovan.

In this video, we'll delve into the fascinating story of this ancient hybrid girl and what it means for our understanding of human history.

None of the prehistoric peoples that researchers have investigated have left behind mysteries as complex as the Denisovans. Only a few small fragments of bone and teeth, all of which would fit neatly inside a cigarette package, have ever been discovered from this long-extinct species.

However, these fragments of fossil evidence imply that Denisovans had a significant impact on modern humans. According to research, Denisovan DNA makes up up to 6% of the genes now present in contemporary New Guineans and 3-5% of the DNA of Aboriginal Australians.

It is also thought that Tibetans passed on the gene that permits them to thrive at high elevations. This material reveals one thing: contemporary humans met Denisovans tens of thousands of years ago and interacted with them sexually.

It is a shocking finding that prompts a lot of fundamental inquiries. Who were the Denisovans, exactly? How did they appear? And how did they relate to the Neanderthals, who were their closest evolutionary relatives? Did they possess the same art and tools as Neanderthals?

Due to the scarcity of the Denisovan fossil record, researchers currently have few answers to these issues. With support from the European Research Council, a new project called Finder Fossil.

Fingerprinting and Identification of New Denisovan Remains from Pleistocene Asia - aims to correct this and revolutionize our understanding of the Denisovans and their interactions with both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

Project leader Katerina Douka, from the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany, and a visiting at Oxford University, said that the goal of the research is to determine where the extinct species existed, when they came into touch with contemporary people, and why they perished.

However, a fundamental issue with Denisovan studies is the scarcity of remains. The only known source is Denisova Cave in Siberia, where their namesake remains were originally discovered in 2010. Only a small number of fossils, along with a few Neanderthal parts, have ever been discovered there.

Tom Higham, consultant to Finder and deputy head of Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, describes the location as "a wonderful site." Because the inside is chilly, DNA in bones does not break down too much.

However, hyenas and other animals there have gnawed away almost all of the bones. Denisova's cave floor is thus covered with small, unrecognizable bone bits.

"You cannot tell whether a piece comes from a mammoth or a sheep or a man or woman," Higham continues. Only a very small percentage will be humans, but they are worth looking for since they could know so much.

Current methods for locating bone fragments entail the laborious process of DNA extraction and sequencing. That takes too long, according to Higham, to be useful. "Here, there are tens of thousands of bone fragments."

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