Photo Gallery Humanity's New Relative
The human family just got a new relative. Genetic researchers in Leipzig have deciphered the DNA of a hominid species that coexisted with Homo sapiens and Neanderthals around 40,000 years ago. A tiny piece of bone, which was found in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, was enough for them to sequence the genome.
The view from a rock above Denisova Cave on to the excavation field camp: Leipzig-based genetic researcher Johannes Krause announced earlier this year that he had discovered the remains of a new type of human. The only surviving fossil was a tiny piece of finger bone from a girl who had died around 50,000 years ago that had been found in the Denisova Cave.
A molar was found in the same Siberian cave. The tooth's owner, according to DNA analysis, was closely related to the Denisova girl.
Excavation work in the Denisova Cave: Seventy percent of the DNA code snippets that they found in the bone powder came from the Denisova girl. Never before had scientists found such a high level of purity in Stone Age DNA.
The Denisovan tooth was markedly different from the teeth of previously known human species.
The researchers were astonished by the massive size of the tooth.
Middle Palaeolithic stone tool from Denisova Cave: The Leipzig researchers now want to search Russian and Chinese collections for more fossils that could belong to the Denisova.
View of the Denisova Cave: Some 300,000 years ago, the Denisovans split off from the branch which eventually developed into the Neanderthals. Whereas the Neanderthals spread westwards into Ice-Age Europe, the Denisovans moved east.
Michael V. Shunkov, leader of the excavations at Denisova Cave: Early humans already used the site 280,000 years ago.
The researchers found the bone that contained the valuable DNA in a layer that is between 30,000 and 50,000 years old.
View of the Altai Mountains: The Max Planck scientists also compared DNA from the Denisova Cave with that of modern man.
View from within the cave: They found no traces of Denisova characteristics in people from Africa, Europe or China. Indeed, clear indications of intermingling were only found among the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea.
Svante Pääbo and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig presented their discoveries in the journal Nature.
Genetic researcher Johannes Krause (March 2010 photo): When Krause drilled into the tiny finger bone for the first time in his clean-room laboratory in Leipzig, he had no inkling of the sensational discovery that awaited him.
