Ancient DNA from Siberia Fingers a Possible New Human Lineage

Evolutionary geneticists analyzing a sample of a 40,000-year-old human finger bone from a Siberian cave have apparently identified a new lineage of ancient human, the first time that this has been done using ancient DNA and not fossil bones. When an ancient-DNA expert gave his colleague a sample of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 327; no. 5973; pp. 1566 - 1567
Main Author Balter, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published American Association for the Advancement of Science 26.03.2010
Subjects
Bones
Caterpillars
DNA
Evolution
Hand bones
Human genetics
Humans
Materials
Mitochondrial DNA
News of the Week
Species
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Summary:Evolutionary geneticists analyzing a sample of a 40,000-year-old human finger bone from a Siberian cave have apparently identified a new lineage of ancient human, the first time that this has been done using ancient DNA and not fossil bones. When an ancient-DNA expert gave his colleague a sample of a 40,000-year-old human finger bone from a Siberian cave, he had only one question: Was its mitochondrial DNA that of a Neandertal or a modern human? It was neither. The evolutionary geneticists have apparently identified a new lineage of ancient human, the first time that this has been done using ancient DNA and not fossil bones.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.327.5973.1566-b