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Krause and Pääbo's analysis, published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature, is the first to identify a novel hominin based on genetic analysis alone - without fossilized remains to offer anatomical reference. But the researchers stop short of declaring the human-like creature a brand-new species. Instead of giving it a Latin name, they refer to the creature publicly as "the Denisova hominin" and in internal e-mails and discussions simply as "X." But privately, scientists at Max Planck - a world leader in the painstaking process of separating genomes from other DNA (of viruses...
Scientists have no idea what the Denisova hominin looked like or how it behaved and interacted with early modern humans, and perhaps never will without a more complete fossil record. But even the preliminary genetic analysis has already shed new light on human ancestors' exodus from Africa and subsequent spread across the globe. The dominant theory holds that various hominin species left Africa in a series of distinct migrations, beginning with Homo erectus or a close relative a little under 2 million years ago, followed by the lineage that gave rise to Neanderthals, and finally the ancestors of modern humans...
...says that because the Denisova hominin is assumed to be human, it's possible that there are many other unknown hominin fossils waiting to be discovered. He says paleontologists will continue to scour for remnants in Siberia and other northern regions, where cold weather helps preserve ancient DNA. Most early hominin fossils are from equatorial and tropical regions, where conditions for DNA survival are poor (indeed, although fossil records suggest a distinct hominin species, Homo floresiensis, co-existed with humans in Indonesia, genetic confirmation has proved elusive). (See the top 10 animal stories...
...significant addition" to the emerging picture of our past - one we now know we shared with a number of other hominin species. "We are the only hominin around today, so we tend to think that's how it's always been. But the evidence is accumulating that the human evolutionary tree is quite luxuriantly branching. There were multiple species that competed in the evolutionary arena, rather than a single lineage that was honed from primitiveness to perfection...
...discovery and genetic mapping of the Denisova hominin may also shed further light on the mystery as to why our species thrived while so many of our close genetic relatives succumbed to extinction. "We wish to find out which genes have changed since we split from these other human forms. Those changes are what makes us human - it's the biological reason for the great success of our species," says Krause. (See how to live 100 years...