Human Sister Species Discovered
By tony leather, 3rd Aug 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsScience
Researchers found, buried within genetic blueprints of 15 different people, a genetic signature indicative of a human sister species - branching off the human family tree around the time of the Neanderthals.
Human Sister Species Discovered
Found, in the DNA of hunter-gatherer people living in Cameroon and Tanzania, appears to be evidence of a hitherto unknown branch in the human family tree, unearthed by geneticists. Researchers found, buried within genetic blueprints of 15 different people, a genetic signature indicative of a human sister species - branching off the human family tree around the time of the Neanderthals.
Though this previously unsuspected line of humanity was probably isolated from the modern human gene pool, though the DNA involved appears to have found a way - through interbreeding with modern humans - into the Homo sapiens gene pool, possibly at the time that Neanderthals and modern humans were interbreeding in the Middle East.
Evidence for such ancient behaviour seems quite indisputable, according to University of California, Santa Cruz genome biologist. Richard Green, archaic species mixing apparently not at all uncommon. This is clearly evidenced by the discovery of certain people - having ancestry outside Africa - having Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA.
The Denisovan DNA stems from a very mysterious group - known only through fossil finger bone DNA - discovered in a cave in Siberia, though the researchers in this latest find no such help in their research. Led by University of Pennsylvania scientist Sarah Tishkoff, the team took DNA from 15 African hunter-gatherers.
These comprised five Cameroon Pygmies, five each of Tanzanian Hadza and Sandawe tribesmen, compiling complete genetic blueprints for each person involved. The data was analyzed using statistical analysis techniques, which resulted in the team determining that 2% of the hunter-gatherer DNA originated with an unknown hominid species which had, about a million years ago, split from modern human ancestors.
It appears that this long-lost hominid species interbred with modern humans prior to the separation, between 30,000 and 70,000 years ago, of the common ancestral lineage of the three hunter-gatherer groups. It seems, though, that other research groups remain doubtful about the DNA remnants identified being genetic remains of a new branch of humanity.
They contend that this DNA could have originated with a genetically distinct modern human group that simply died out due to environmental or other changes. Stanford University anthropological geneticist Paul Verdu thinks the DNA could be a previously unknown genetic stamp, now unrecognizable because of generational dilution.
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