Evolution, hominid, Neanderthal, Denisovans: DNA tests confirm a previously unknown hominid species - latimes.com. After sequencing the DNA from a 30,000-year-old pinkie finger discovered in a Siberian cave, researchers have confirmed that it belonged to a previously unknown hominid species that probably diverged from the Neanderthal line about 350,000 years ago.
The genetic sequence shares as much as 6% of its segments with modern-day Melanesians in the South Pacific, suggesting that the extinct species — which has no formal name but whose members are being called Denisovans because the bone was found in the Denisova Cave — ranged widely throughout East Asia. In May, researchers showed that modern humans of European descent carry 2% to 3% Neanderthal DNA, suggesting that there was interbreeding between the two groups tens of thousands of years ago. Erowid. New extinct species of pre-humans confirmed.
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY A nearly complete genetic analysis out today confirms that, like extinct Neanderthals, another population of pre-humans mostly disappeared from the human family tree about 50,000 years ago.
But perhaps 4-6% of the DNA possessed by people today in New Guinea spring from this vanished family of archaic humans, suggests the genetic analysis of a pinky bone found in Siberia's Denisova cave located in the Altai mountains. The team theorizes early modern humans mated with "Denisovans," in small numbers, during ancient migrations. Human Evolution by The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. The Talk.Origins Archive: Must-Read FAQs. Welcome to the National Zoo. Evolution.