The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a different archaic human group, the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting at the Royal Society in London. They suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups living in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet unknown human ancestor from Asia.
“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work.
The first Neanderthal and the Denisovan genome sequences revolutionized the study of ancient human history, not least because they showed that these groups interbred with anatomically modern humans, contributing to the genetic diversity of many people alive today.


Nov 28, 2013 @ 08:06:38
Reblogged this on James' World.
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Nov 28, 2013 @ 08:27:45
It continues to baffle me that people think this is odd. Have you ever seen a dog or cat care what breed it breeds with? Hell no. Why would humans be different? If they could, they did. Trust me, it would be unnatural if there were not Neanderthal DNA in our mix… that there is more than that is clearly logical. What is illogical is the people who find such discoveries surprising…. gah!
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Nov 29, 2013 @ 04:10:37
You definitely have a point!
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