Archaeological Science as Game-Changer: What ancient genes tell us about who we are

VIENNA - June 8, 2022 - PRLog -- Using the latest scientific methods, Tom Higham and Katerina Douka from the University of Vienna want to solve a great mystery of human evolution: Why are we the only humans left? Higham and Douka were the first ones to find a first-generation offspring of two different types of human.

Our ancient cousins are more present in modern human DNA than we thought: Modern humans possess a small proportion of genes from archaic groups like Neanderthals. Every person having a European or Asian background has an average of two percent of Neanderthal DNA in their blood. For persons having an African background, this number is smaller. This explains not only some genetic dispositions in modern humans, it is also proof that different human species had contact more than 40,000 years ago.

HOMO SAPIENS: THE ONLY SPECIES LEFT OF EIGHT OR MORE?

Examining ancient fragments of bone and teeth is the daily business of molecular archaeologists Tom Higham and Katerina Douka. The two have worked together with others for the last 15 years to understand more about what happened in the crucial Palaeolithic period, or Old Stone Age. It is likely that there were at least eight different species of humans on Earth (perhaps even more) between 150,000-30,000 years ago – and they sometimes exchanged genetic material through inter-breeding. "Today is a very unusual time in terms of human evolution". Tom Higham explains, "For several million years, we shared the planet with different groups of hominins related to us and now it is just us, as well as our great ape cousins".

More info here:

What ancient genes tell us about who we are (https://rudolphina.univie.ac.at/ancient-dna-analysis-arch...) (https://rudolphina.univie.ac.at/ancient-dna-analysis-archaeological-science-in-vienna)

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