Concept explainers
The unexpected discovery that humans interbred with Neanderthals was a triumph for the experts who developed the techniques for extracting, isolating, and sequencing ancient DNA. But perhaps the most stunning revelation made possible by ancient DNA was the discovery of the Denisovans, a hominin species whose existence would still be unknown if not for analysis of its ancient DNA. The fossil fragments from which the DNA was extracted were too few, too small, and too nondescript to have even been recognized as belonging to a previously unknown species. A newfound ability to identify new extinct species on the basis of DNA alone raises the intriguing possibility of future discovery of other previously unsuspected species, hommin and otherwise.
Like Neanderthals, Denisovans left a genetic trace in modern humans. One example is the Denisovan gene variant that helps Tibetans live at high altitude. Additionally, the people native to New Guinea and other Pacific islands carry a substantial number of Demsovan sequences. Almost 5% of the genome of these people is of Demsovan origin. This finding suggests that Denisovans interbred with the ancestors of Pacific Islanders, either in mainland Asia before the islands were first cotonized by people, or later, if Denisovans were somehow able to get to multiple islands.
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Biology
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- In the book, Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, scientists are able to reconstruct dinosaurs by getting dinosaur DNA from a mosquito that had been well-preserved in amber since the era of dinosaurs. Do you believe this can actually happen in real life? Why?arrow_forwardWhy do you think such a small portion of Neandertal or Denisovan DNA exists in the gene pool of modern humans? Why not more?arrow_forwardOnce nuclear DNA sequencing became fast and able to handle sequencing ancient DNA, living humans were found to have some Neanderthal genes. Is this finding clear evidence that some early modern humans did indeed hybridize with Neanderthals? Why?arrow_forward
- The Out of Africa hypothesis (also called the African Replacement hypothesis) proposes that Homo sapiens arose in Africa and evolved there for several hundred thousand years. Then, some 85,000 years ago, a small band of Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and populated the remainder of the world. Based on this hypothesis, what predictions would you make about worldwide human variation in mtDNA?arrow_forwardAdvances in biotechnology have revolutionized the study of ancient remains. In Ötzi's case, a genetic study showed that his DNA most closely matched up with people that currently live in Sardinia. One hypothesis for this is that at Ötzi's time, a group of people with similar DNA spread throughout Europe including Sardinia. Sardinia is somewhat isolated so the DNA of the population living there has changed very little since that time. On mainland Europe, where his remains were found, there was more mixing of populations so there have been changes to the DNA profiles of the people living in that region. Questions: 1.) Based on the genetic results, do you think Ötzi should be considered Sardinian even though he lived in the Alps? Why or why not?arrow_forwardDNA sequences were analyzed from humans and three other mammals: species X, Y, and Z. Which of these mammals is most closely related to humans? (Note: Regions identical to human DNA are shown in bold type.)arrow_forward
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