Following path of genetic footprint
An international team of researchers studying DNA patterns from modern and archaic humans has uncovered new clues about the movement and intermixing of populations more than 40,000 years ago in Asia. Using state-of-the-art genome analysis methods, scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have found that Denisovans — a recently identified group of archaic humans whose DNA was extracted last year from a finger bone excavated in Siberia — contributed DNA not just to present-day New Guineans, but also to aboriginal Australian and Philippine populations. The study demonstrates that contrary to the findings of the largest previous genetic studies, modern humans settled Asia in more than one migration. According to David Reich, a professor of genetics at HMS, “Denisova DNA is like a medical imaging dye that traces a person’s blood vessels. It is so recognizable that you can detect even a...