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Denisovans

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Julurens: a new cousin for Denisovans and Neanderthals

A new study suggests that the Middle Pleistocene record in China includes more groups than have previously been recognized.

A fossil child's upper jaw with teeth, in two views on left and two angles of microCT on the right
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Top 10 discoveries about ancient people from DNA in 2023

This year's highlights include ways of finding ancient relatives, how some phenotypes evolved in ancient people, and trace evidence from artifacts.

DNA molecular models on a cloudy background
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Tracing the signature of African-to-Neandertal gene flow

A new study of African genetic variation yields a more accurate picture of the genetic exchanges between ancient Africans and Neandertals 250,000 years ago.

DNA with chains of bubbles rising from it in a fluid
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Interaction and mixture: big picture and small

From the level of function of a single gene up to the movements of entire populations, our evolution was built from mixture.

Painting from 1883 of stone age dancers feasting around a fire
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When did human chromosome 2 fuse?

More and more, it looks like this event happened shortly before a million years ago, in the common ancestors of Neandertal, Denisovan, and African ancestral humans.

When did human chromosome 2 fuse?
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Climate models, Neandertals, and Denisovans

A new paper on biogeography of Neandertals and Denisovans raises ideas about the interactions of these groups.

A Neandertal-looking person dressed in animal skins lifting a stick and looking at a misty sunrise on snow.
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Explaining the X chromosome hole in Neandertal ancestry

Natural selection reduced the variation on human X chromosomes in populations with the most Neandertal and Denisovan mixture. It may have been meiotic drive.

A fluorescence image of chromosomes in cells undergoing meiosis
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Solving the mystery of the Red Deer Cave people

New DNA evidence is revealing the genetic relationships of ancient groups from southern China, showing how they were connected to living people across the region.

Two reconstructed partial skulls side by side representing the Red Deer Cave people
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An enormous sample sheds light on the Denisovan ancestry of people in Iceland

Laurent Skov and coworkers have measured the very small amount of DNA shared within the Iceland population from Denisovan ancestry and they discuss several scenarios for how it may have gotten there.

An Iceland landscape with Northern Lights in the sky reflected in a lake
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Part of a Denisovan mtDNA resides in the nuclear genomes of many living people

A paper last week by Robert Bücking and coworkers trawled through the recently-sequenced Indonesian Genome Diversity Project dataset looking for snippets of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that have been inserted into the nuclear genome. These snippets, called “NUMTs”, arise every so often as a result of DNA transfer from the mitochondrion

A reproduction of the Denisova 3 finger bone sits on a chalk outline of a hand