Scientists Reveal What Ancient Relative of Humans Looked Like

nightqueen

Sep 28, 2019 5:00 AM EDT

What do you, me and every other person on Earth have in common? I won't make you guess, because we all have a lot more in common than we think we do. No matter how different we might seem from each other, we're all part of the same species: homo sapiens. And that means that we all have ancestors in common. We know what Neanderthals look like, but it's a different story for their recently discovered cousin, the Denisovans. Some scientists have just made a pretty good guess about what the Denisovans looked like.

via Independent

Neanderthals weren't the only ancient human, although they're the most well known - probably because they were the most recent ancient humans to have lived, and there have been many discoveries of their bone remains. In 2010, scientists discovered a finger bone inside a cave that has been inhabited by modern humans and Neanderthals. However, the bone didn't fit either species and thus the Denisovans were discovered.
The lineage that connects us modern humans to the Neanderthals and Denisovans breaks away about 600,000 to 744,000 years ago. Scientists know a lot more about the Neanderthals than the Denisovans. So far, only a handful of fossils remaining from the Denisovans have been found, including a molar, a finger bone and a jaw bone.
via UPI

One aspect of the Denisovans was of particular interest for scientist David Gokhman and his colleagues: what the Denisovans looked like. And that question might be answered in the study by the group published in the science journal Cell.
Gokhman and his team looked at the genomes found in the few bone remains of Denisovians that exist, comparing the tiny changes in genes of Neanderthals, Denisovans and chimpanzees. They then worked out what these differences would mean for anatomical features based on human disorders in which the same gene loses it's function.
via Times of Israel

The team found that there are 56 anatomic features in which Denisovans differ from modern humans and Neanderthals. 34 of these features are in the skull. Compared to modern humans, Denisovans have wider skulls, a long face, a sloping forehead, large dental arches, no chin and a large pelvis.
It is quite amazing that the scientists managed to make these discoveries, considering that while Neanderthal skulls have been found and provided great assistance for those trying to imagine how the Neanderthals looked, the only remains of Denisovans so far are a finger bone, a tooth and a jaw bone.
via SABC News

Denisovan DNA didn't just end when the Denisovans died out. There is evidence that the Denisovans and Neanderthals bred with each other. And what's more, both species bred with modern humans in Eurasia up to 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. In fact, experts discovered that Neanderthal DNA makes up about 2 percent of the genome of people today from non-African descent, and Denisovan DNA makes up about 3 percent of the genome of the indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Research of our ancient ancestors will help scientists to understand the those of the homo genus (Denisovans, Neanderthals and modern humans) so much more - past and present.