Scientists say they have found the remains of a prehistoric female with a Neanderthal mother and whose father was one of the Denisovans. It marks the first time a direct offspring of the two has been found.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/University of Toronto/Max Planck Institute/B. Viola
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A group of scientists said on Wednesday that a 90,000-year-old bone fragment found in Siberia shows signs of interbreeding between Neanderthals and another prehistoric group of human relatives known as Denisovans.
While past genetic studies have shown signs of interbreeding between the two groups, as well as with homo sapiens, Wednesday's study is the first to identify a first-generation child with Neanderthal and Denisovan parents.
Scientists nicknamed the inter-species love child Denny, after her Denisovan father.
"It's fascinating to find direct evidence of this mixing going on," said Svante Paabo, a geneticist at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and one of the study's lead authors.
Dinknesh: A peek into the history of humankind
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Miracle discovery
The cave where the bone was found, located in the Siberian Altai Mountains near the border with Mongolia, contains the fossilized remains of both the Neanderthals and the Denisovans. However, finding a direct offspring from the two groups appeared to be a stroke of luck. Only 24 early human genomes older than 40,000 years have been sequenced, meaning the chances of uncovering a half-and-half hybrid was virtually zero.
"The fact that we stumbled across this makes you wonder if the mixing wasn't quite frequent," Paabo said. "Had it happened frequently, we would not have such divergence between the Denisovans and Neanderthal genomes."
Both groups disappeared some 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia, while fossils of Denisovans have so far only been uncovered from the Siberian cave where the fragment was found.
Scientists said the ancient female's DNA showed that the genes she inherited from her mother closely matched those to Neanderthals living in Europe, rather than those found in the cave, suggesting that there was a wave of westward migration.
Today, around two percent of DNA in non-Africans across the globe originates from humans' Neanderthal ancestors. Denisovan DNA remnants are also widespread, albeit less evenly. Traces amounting to less than one percent have been found among Asians and native Americans, while aboriginal Australians and people in Papua New Guinea have about five percent, according to Paabo.
A brief history of humankind
What distinguishes humans from animals? What is culture? Did Homo sapiens and Neanderthals co-exist at any time in history? A museum in Bonn answers these questions by revisiting 100,000 years of cultural history.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/A. Avital
From molecules to the nuclear bomb
Life and death are inseparable. The exhibition "A Brief History of Humankind" in Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle museum shows how, 13.8 billion years ago, molecules began to connect and turn into structured organisms. The above video still by US artist Bruce Conner shows what could spell the end of evolution: the nuclear bomb.
Image: B. Connor
A turning point: fire
Remains of the oldest Eurasian hearth dating back 780,000 years were discovered on the banks of the river Jordan. The ability to control fire was a turning point in evolutionary history that moved mankind to the top of the food chain. Fire gave light, kept people warm; people cooked over a fire and used it to make stone tools. It was a gathering place - a Stone Age TV.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
The birth of mankind
Homo sapiens had a fleeting chin, slanting forehead and a narrow brow ridge. The above skull is about 100,000 years old and was found in Israel, where Homo sapiens co-existed with Neanderthals for quite some time. All of the artifacts displayed in the Bonn exhibition are from Israel - and it's the first time they are on view in Europe.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem
Shaping culture
This Neanderthal skull was unearthed in the Amud Cave in Galilee. Anatomically, it is nothing like the skull of Homo sapiens: the chin is even more fleeting, the back of the head shows an indentation. These early humans not only fulfilled their basic needs, archaeologists also found they held burial rituals and other forms of culture.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
Togetherness
What makes us human? Family plays a huge role. Apart from historical objects, the exhibition also presents works by contemporary artists. US sculptor Charles Ray's 1993 "Family Romance" shows the fine line that connects family. In this sculpture, two parents hold their offspring's hands; however, the normalcy of a nuclear family is disrupted as both son and daughter are as tall as mom and dad.
Image: R. Charles
Gods made of stone
Humans started forming figurines depicting gods about 8,000 years ago, at a time when people were settling, planting fields and forming communities. They created goddesses they could pray to for good harvests and fertility. The phallic shape in the above photo could also symbolize a male god. Lines and etchings indicate abstract portraits.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
External memory aid
Unlike animals, humans can collect and write down knowledge. The Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia began to record information and numbers. This clay tablet was inscribed between 4,000 and 3,100 BC, paving the way for the complex memory systems needed to build cities and empires.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
Money instead of shells
This coin made of electrum, a gold and silver alloy, is the oldest-known coin in the world. Embossed with the picture of a grazing stag, it is from the seventh century BC. Of course, other forms of payment already existed: sea shells, pearls and promissory notes.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/Y. Hovav
Home sweet home
In the third century BC, Arad was a flourishing business center at the crossroads of two trade routes in the Middle East. For 350 years, it was a magnificent city of palaces, temples and homes. The above model shows a typical square one-room dwelling with a flat roof, dating back to between 3,000 to 2,650 BC.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/A. Hay
Two-faced progress
In 1912, Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity, a sensation and a scientific revolution. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem owns the original manuscript to E=mc². The mathematical formula embodies the two sides of progress: With it, mankind gained important insight into physics, but it also enabled the creation of the first nuclear bomb.
