The current inhabitants of Melanesia, the islands of Oceania region north of Australia, shows genetic similarities to Denisovans hominids. This group of archaic humans is related to Neanderthals, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
Genetic research was developed by a large team led by the University of Washington in Seattle (USA) , which involved researchers from different parts of the country, as well as the University of Ferrara (Italy) and the Institute for Development Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany).
early
> the first track on the Denisovan hominid was the finding of a phalanx and two molars in the cave Denisova (which gives the name to the species) in the Altai mountains of southern Siberia.
later studies indicated that this species, it is supposed that inhabited the Earth between a million and 40,000 years coexisted with Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, which share characteristics of DNA.
this study shows that the DNA of the present inhabitants of Melanesia, bordering region with Australia, including the Fiji Islands, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, agrees higher with hominid Denisova percentage.
to conduct this research, scientists analyzed the genomes of 1,523 individuals worldwide, including 35 northern archipelago of Melanesia.
the results show that the non-African population (which the Melanesians included) had inherited about 1.5% and 4% of the genomes of Neanderthals.
Reservoir genes
However, what is striking it is that the inhabitants of Melanesia are the only ones that also have a high percentage of genetic Denisovans, of between 1.9 and 3.4% of its genome, according to the study.
These data shed light on the map of genetic sequences between species and their interactions, and also helps to understand the interpretation of human evolution. This vision is becoming increasingly remote from the row that begins with a hairy hominid and ends in modern man
No comments:
Post a Comment