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New DNA Analysis Shows Ancient Humans Interbred with Denisovans

Scientific American - Posted: August 30th, 2012, 8:00pm EDT

pTens of thousands of years ago modern humans crossed paths with the group of hominins known as the Neandertals. Researchers now think they also met another, less-known group called the Denisovans. The only trace that we have found, however, is a single finger bone and two teeth, but those fragments have been enough to cradle wisps of Denisovan DNA across thousands of years inside a Siberian cave. Now a team of scientists has been able to reconstruct their entire genome from these meager fragments. The analysis adds new twists to prevailing notions about archaic human history./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=denisovan-genome[More]/a

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