DNA of The Denisovens of Siberia

Thanks to a little girl's pinkie bone.  Fascinating!

--- On Fri, 8/31/12, Alicia Carrillo wrote:

From: Alicia Carrillo
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] DNA of The Denisovens of Siberia
To: "general@nuestrosranchos.org"
Date: Friday, August 31, 2012, 11:11 PM

Today while driving home from work, I was listening to NPR specifically to the California Report about a just published study in a science journal about the DNA findings of the Denisovens. To those of you who might be more experienced in DNA, this might be old news, but for me, this is new news. I came home straight to my computer to search for articles about our ancient ancestors, the Denisovens.

Alicia,
Northern California

Here's a brief intro into this article, I hope you find it as fascinating as I did.

THE Denisovans, mysterious cousins of the
Neanderthals, occupied a vast realm stretching from the chill expanse of Siberia to the steamy tropical forests of Indonesia - suggesting the
third human of the Pleistocene displayed a level of adaptability
previously thought to be unique to modern humans.
Our first tantalising glimpse of the Denisovans came last year with DNA analysis of a bone and tooth found in a Siberian cave. The DNA was distinct
enough from Neanderthals' to suggest tens of thousands of years of
independent evolution.
Before they disappeared, the Denisovans found time to interbreed with Homo sapiens. As a result, 5 per cent of the Denisovan genome lives on - not in the
inhabitants of Siberia but in Papua New Guineans, living thousands of
kilometres to the south-east (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature09710).

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128323.200-the-vast-asian-realm…