400,000 year old genome from spain sequenced

Scientists have sequenced the genome of a 400,000 year old individual, whose remains came from the cave at Sima de los huesos, in norther Spain.

It will come to no surprise to people who noticed an earlier paper on cave bear mtDNA from Atapuerca that the folks at the Max Planck Institute would try to do the same for the plentiful human remains found in the Pit of Bones.

A new paper in Nature reports their success, and overnight increases by an order of magnitude the time depth for which we now have human mtDNA from what is commonly designated as Homo heidelbergensis, from right in the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. Obviously, this opens new vistas for archaeogenetic research, making it possible to directly look at early pre-sapiens forms of humans, and not only on their final forms prior to their replacement, the Neandertals and Denisovans.

The most impressive aspect of the new paper is most likely the technical challenges that the researchers must've overcome to achieve this result. The cave bear DNA showed that this was possible, but human DNA adds an additional complication in the form of contamination by a closely related species, us.

But, the new evolutionary result which will interest those of us not interested in the minutiae of biomolecules will no doubt be the fact that the Sima hominin's mtDNA formed a clade with the much more recent Denisova girl.

dienekes.blogspot.com...


This is very interesting stuff, homo Heidelbergensis is more closely related denisovans than to Neanderthal.

reply to post by punkinworks10


Sounds cool

Had to edit now that you have added content. Do you have a link for what you quoted?


ETA again: thanks.

punkinworks10

'But, the new evolutionary result which will interest those of us not interested in the minutiae of biomolecules will no doubt be the fact that the Sima hominin's mtDNA formed a clade with the much more recent Denisova girl'

A big fat S & F

Now that little bit there will spawn much debate and speculation, I wonder how much of that mtDNA survived the Lake Toba blast and fall out?

Here is the link to the paper in the journal Nature
www.nature.com...

And more from Dienekies blog,

Until now, we knew that Neandertal mtDNA grouped together and so did modern human mtDNA. The two groups shared a Middle Pleistocene common ancestor and a much more distant common ancestor (~1 million years) with the mtDNA found in Denisova. The new Sima specimen shares descent from Denisova. This is important because it shows that whatever archaic human population the Denisovan mtDNA belonged to also extended to western Europe. And, surprisingly, the Sima specimen did not group with Neandertals, as might be expected because of the incipient Neanderthaloid morphology of the Sima hominins which has been a matter of controversy as it pushes back the evolutionary lineage of H. neandertalensis deeper into the Middle Pleistocene that some researchers accept.

Before this paper, it was believed that H. heidelbergensis evolved somewhere (perhaps Near East or Africa), a subset of it evolved to H. sapiens in Africa, and a different subset evolved in Eurasia, leading up to H. neandertalensis in the west, and unknown forms in the east, of which the Denisova girl was a matrilineal descendant. The next question is: when did Neandertals and Neandertal mtDNA appear in Europe? 

reply to post by andy1972


Well, given all that negativity going in Spain you've mentioned wouldn't something positive be worth even the smallest of a "Adda Boy"

Not even a teeny one?

reply to post by andy1972


there will always be distractions to slow down science and discovery.

lets not have another "dark ages" where we simply dont need knowledge because of our other worldy problems getting in the way.

reply to post by andy1972

How does that have anything to do with a study by a German research team, in Germany.
This isn't the place for comments on the Spanish economy, take it elsewhere, so those of us who find this interesting can discuss it.

Wow, what a great tread derailing... goes well with recent rail problems world has... (we should blame them, shouldn't we? )

It is very good find, DNA is match for Denisovan DNA and to everyone's big surprise it has nothing to do with Neanderthals. Those 2 locations where Denisovan DNA were found are 4,000 miles apart, meaning that even this kind of humanoids traveled. They also, together with Neanderthals did mate with humans, but both went extinct.

Indeed interesting, F&S for topic.

reply to post by ParaZep


So what do you sugest? Should scientist abandon research because of all problems andy mentioned?

Should they join rest of country and quit jobs/research?

I don't see what you are against, or what is solution for problem you recommending....

Cool information! Goes to show that man really has no idea how long we've been here or how we truly came to be.

S/F

ParaZep
reply to post by andy1972

 

This guy has the right ****ing idea. I'm all for scientific progress, but seriously guys?

Really ,
And again how does a study by a German team at a German institution, have anything to do with the economic troubles in Spain

Wow this is amazing news.

I find it interesting that they mentioned "Pre Sapiens" research needed, to find the connection to Neanderthal/Denisovians.

Interesting that they mention that the "African" Homo and the "Eurasian" Homo may have a connection with the Homo Heidelbergensis species.

So with this latest knowledge, there very well could have been a Homo Sapien developed in Africa, And a Homo Sapien (or there abouts) developed in Eurasia.......

In the time period we are talking..400,000 years, and they consider the Neanderthal species at 250,000 years or so......it is QUITE possible that early man, ENTERED Africa FROM Europe, Not the other way as currently proposed.

Immigration is not just a one way street, Homos left Africa...Homos Probably went back to Africa, especially when we talk about the time frame of at least 500,000 years.

May explain why the Australian natives culture, is older than most African natives (at least the living ones) culture.

Looking forward to other interesting research, like connection with the other ancient races of East Asia/Indonesia etc.....Even the ancient races of the Americas...the pre "Indians".

.... exciting stuff.

help i'm having problems understanding the op.
can someone explain the whole thing to me, slowly. i dunno why but every time i read it, it doesn't translate to anything understandable.

first, could someone post the list of which one is first second and so on, down the evolutinary chain to homo sapiens. then explain what makes the op so interesting please

The topic is 400,000 year old genome from spain sequenced

Please post accordingly.

Thanks