Some of the first human settlers in the Americas carried more than primitive skills and tools, they also brought a small but powerful genetic variant called MUC19. That gene fragment, inherited from an extinct hominin called Denisovans, appears to have helped early people cope with new diseases, foods, and landscapes. In a new study, a team of scientists …
Read More »Denisovan and Neanderthal DNA helped the first Americans survive, study finds Archaeology News Online Magazine The first Americans had Denisovan DNA. And it may have helped them survive. yahoo.com DNA from extinct hominin may have helped ancient peoples survive in the Americas Phys.org Denisovan Mucus Gene May Have Helped Humans Survive in The Americas ScienceAlert Extinct human relatives left a genetic gift that helped …
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Our ancestors are known to have gotten frisky with other, now-extinct species of humans, leaving traces in our DNA to this day. A new analysis has found that a certain genetic variant inherited from the Denisovans may have given modern humans (Homo sapiens) an edge in populating the American continents. “Typically, genetic novelty is generated through a very slow process,” …
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The first people to step foot in the Americas were harboring a sliver of DNA from two extinct Eurasian human groups: the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, a new study finds. This genetic relic could have helped the earliest Americans fight diseases they encountered in their new environment, the researchers proposed. Everyone alive today is “a result of like three different …
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Researchers think that members of the most recently identified “hominin” group (the Denisovans) mixed with early modern humans and passed along parts of their DNA. Evidence points to several separate interbreeding events, each leaving a genetic imprint that influenced the course of human history. In 2010, scientists released the first draft of the Neanderthal genome. Comparing it with modern human …
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