Neanderthals, Denisovans and our ancestors were mixing and mingling a long time ago -- and some of our genetics can be traced back to these archaic humans.
In Asians, as much as 3% of an individual's DNA may be Neanderthal. For Europeans, it's as much as 2%. A new study has found that our ancestors interbred with two distinct Denisovan populations, increasing the probability of the presence in modern populations of DNA inherited from this ancient and mysterious people. The study, using a new genome-analysis method to compare whole genomes of humans with Denisovans, was published in the journal Cell on Thursday. "It is amazing that we can look into human history via current-day human genetic data, and determine some of the events that happened in the past," study author Sharon Browning wrote in an email. Browning is a research professor with the University of Washington's Department of Biostatistics. "In particular, in this study we found two distinct episodes of Denisovan admixture, which adds to what was previously known about the contribution of Neanderthals and Denisovans to our genomes today." Read more...
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