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| The 400,000 year-old Denisova hominin thigh bone found in Spain. |
Our Ancient History Constantly Changing?
In a paper in the journal Nature, scientists reported December 4th that they had retrieved ancient human DNA from a fossil dating back about 400,000 years. Why is this amazing?
Firstly because the previous record was of 100,000 years and secondly because the retrieved DNA does not belong to a forerunner of Neanderthals, as previously thought. The fossil, a thigh bone found in Spain, closely resembles the DNA of a cryptic subspecies of Homo Sapiens, known as Denisovans.
Until now, the oldest remnants of Denisovans have been discovered in a cave in Siberia and have been dated to be 41,000 year old. The DNA was retrieved from a finger bone fragment of a juvenile female.
