Ten keys on DNA than 400,000 years old found in Atapuerca - Lainformacion.com

oldest DNA analysis of history has been around the world and rocked in a way what we know about the evolution of man. The genetic material of 400,000 years old extracted from the femur of a Homo heildebergensis from the Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca, has offered a surprise: these first humans, including famous Miquelon , are less related to Neanderthals than previously thought, despite sharing morphological features. By contrast, genes say are more like other species found 8,000 miles away and a much later period (40,000 years ago). This is Denisovans found in Siberia in 2010 and identified by genetic analysis and considered very distant relatives of the Neanderthals.

What happened in the interval? Scientists have several hypotheses and few certainties. Evidence obtained by the team of Atapuerca and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany) suggest that there were more hybridizations and hominid groups exchanging genetic material in Eurasia than previously thought. Now try to understand the significance of the new data and fit them with what is known. These are some of the most interesting details of the investigation:

1. A giant leap. have obtained genetic information of a fossil 400,000 years was almost unthinkable until recently. The oldest human material discussed so far has less than 100,000 years, recalls SINC paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga , co-author of the study, which describes the analysis of a “giant leap”.

2. Hypotheses. How this unexpected relationship between H. explained heidelbergensis and denisovianos? The variety of proposals gives an idea of ??the questions that opens the study: one is that these hominids found in Siberia, and so far almost unknown, they were widespread throughout the area of ??Eurasia earlier than expected. But they have not left much of a mark. Another is that Denisovans and heidelbergensis have a common ancestor, which could be Homo antecessor , or denisovana hybridization between a mother and a father Neanderthal would result in an heidelbergensis , and even talk of another mysterious hominid species that have hybridized with these.

3. Two grams of femur. For the genetic analyzes have sufficed 1.95 grams XIII Sima Femur Bone . Recently it was believed that this ancient material DNA could not be obtained.

4. Mitochondrial to nuclear. Small fragments of genetic material analyzed in this study belong to mitochondrial DNA and no DNA in the nucleus of cells. This DNA is maternally inherited and can be compared with that of other species. But it may soon be able to also get DNA from the nucleus, which has much more information. Team Svante Pääbo expected to have this analysis within a year, according to Nature.

5. Trials with bears. Before analyzing the DNA of the femur, the Max Planck Institute team had already sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome precedent bear the same site with an estimated 430,000 years old. The study was used to refine the analysis technique.

6. Morphology vs. genetics. What says the genome contradicts what paleontologists had deduced studying how bones and the age of the remains. The Homo heidelbergensis from the Sima de los Huesos presents much more like Neanderthal traits, but says that the genome is more related to Denisovans Found in Siberia. This can rethink many of the relationships we assumed so far. Indeed, data obtained by DNA are changing some of the conclusions that paleontologists had come with other evidence, as happened with the news of our hybridization with Neanderthals.

7. New protocols. As the journalist has Rosa M. Tristan on his blog , femur on which the study was done was found in different pieces between 1994 and 1999, without following any particular protocol. When you are analyzing the genetic material must be taken that the sample is not contaminated, so from now, says Arsuaga, will have to remove this material in a sterile manner and following a strict protocol to prevent contamination.

8. How much can go back in time To analyze the DNA of a human 400,000 years ago is challenging and perhaps self-preservation of the material makes it impossible to go back more. As Bermúdez de Castro points out, the remains of Homo antecessor (older than the Sima de los Huesos) are fossilized at 100%. Still, there is room for improvement if new findings are produced. The oldest analyzed in animal DNA, for example, a horse is 700,000 years preserved in permafrost in Canada.

9. Miquelon and Denisovans, but relatives alike. It says Arsuaga in SINC. “We have concluded that the closest relative of this species from the Sima de los Huesos is in Siberia, but that does not mean that closely resemble, in fact it is estimated that would take 700,000 years to evolve separately. They are very different but with a common ancestor, “Arsuaga added.

10. So what happened in human evolution A few months ago, the team analyzed the skull found at Dmanisi result 5 (Georgia) noted that there are fewer species than the paleantropólogos have classified and Homo habilis and Homo erectus , for example, were actually the same thing. Morphological varieties, they said, were between individuals and not between species: the line was simpler. The study of the DNA of Atapuerca points, however, to the evolution of early man could be more complex than expected. “A much more complicated than we could imagine history, and that we may never understand the full extent,” says Bermudez de Castro. “There are crosses and hybrids that have not been taken into account,” says Arsuaga World. “It’s a story of a million years and a lot has happened,” he concludes.

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