Is human ancestor in Siberia new member of family tree?
Toronto Star: In the latest use of DNA to investigate the story of humankind, scientists have decoded genetic material from an unidentified human ancestor that lived in Siberia and concluded it might be a new member of the human family tree.
The DNA doesn't match modern humans or Neanderthals, two species that lived in the area around the same time -- 30,000 to 50,000 years ago... The finding emphasizes that quite unlike the present day, anatomically modern humans have often lived alongside their evolutionary relatives, one expert said...
Their analysis indicated the Siberian species last shared a common ancestor with modern humans and Neanderthals about 1 million years ago. That in turn suggests there was a previously unrecognized migration out of Africa around that time...
Bone May Reveal a New Human Group
The New York Times: The artifacts found in the cave in the same layer as the finger bone include ornaments and a bracelet... These are puzzling artifacts to be found with a nonmodern human species. But bones can move up and down in archaeological sites, and it is hard to know if the finger bone is truly associated with these artifacts... even though there is little sign of mixing in the cave's layers...
The valley beneath the Denisova cave 30,000 years ago would have been mostly a steppe, or treeless grassland, according to pollen analysis, and it was roamed by ice-age species like the wooly mammoth and woolly rhino...
As recently as 30,000 years ago, it now appears, there were five human species in the world... 'We think it's normal to be alone in the world as we are today,' Dr. [Ian] Tattersall said, and to see human evolution as a long trend leading to Homo sapiens. In fact, the tree has kept generating new branches that get cut off... 'The fossil record is very eloquent about this, and it's telling us we are an insuperable competitor.'
Image source here.
