By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-22 19:15:25 | Updated at 2024-11-29 10:22:41
6 days ago
Humans Had Sex With At Least Three Different Denisovan Populations
IFL Science ^ | November 11, 2024 | Benjamin Taub
Posted on 11/22/2024 10:40:56 AM PST by Red Badger
Some people in Oceania carry up to 5 percent Denisovan DNA.
Prehistoric artifacts from Denisova Cave, home of the Denisovans.
Image credit: OlgaMed/Shutterstock.com
Our ancient ancestors were not picky about who they got into bed with, and the echoes of this prehistoric promiscuity can still be detected in human genomes from around the world today. Listed among our early romantic conquests are the Denisovans, and researchers now believe we mated with at least three distinct populations of this long-extinct species.
“It’s a common misconception that humans evolved suddenly and neatly from one common ancestor, but the more we learn the more we realise interbreeding with different hominins occurred and helped to shape the people we are today,” said study author Dr Linda Ongaro in a statement. The Denisovans, for instance, became known to modern science in 2010 when their genome was sequenced from a single finger bone at the Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains of Siberia, yet they were clearly no strangers to early Homo sapiens.
Initially, scientists thought that only Papuans carried traces of Denisovan DNA, with up to 5 percent of their genome being inherited from these ancient hominins. However, subsequent research indicated that smaller amounts of Denisovan genetic material could be also found in East Asian, South Asian, and Indigenous American populations.
For a number of years, it was believed that a single ancient rendezvous resulted in the introduction of these Denisovan genes into the modern human genome, yet after reviewing all the existing evidence on the subject, Ongaro and her colleagues found that several booty calls may have taken place.
“Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only that finger bone, a jawbone, teeth, and skull fragments,” said Ongaro. “But by leveraging the surviving Denisovan segments in Modern Human genomes scientists have uncovered evidence of at least three past events whereby genes from distinct Denisovan populations made their way into the genetic signatures of modern humans.”
According to the available evidence, the original Altai Denisovans began to fragment into multiple lineages some time between 409,000 and 222,000 years ago. The oldest of these populations appears to have interbred with the ancient ancestors of today’s East Asians, while DNA from two splinter Denisovan lineages can be found in Papuan genomes.
Interestingly, because Denisovans arrived in Eurasia hundreds of millennia before modern humans, they had already developed a number of genetic adaptations that enabled them to survive in a wide array of harsh environments, from high-altitude plateaus to frigid steppes. By interbreeding with them, Homo sapiens seem to have picked up a number of these advantageous genes.
“Among these is a genetic locus that confers a tolerance to hypoxia, or low oxygen conditions, which makes a lot of sense as it is seen in Tibetan populations,” said Ongaro. Known as the EPAS1 locus, this particular gene can be traced back to the group of Denisovans that mingled with East Asians.
“Another example of adaptive introgression is related to lipid metabolism in Inuit from Greenland, which have a highly divergent haplotype in the TBX15/WARS2 region that was probably introduced into the modern human gene pool via introgression with Denisovans,” write the study authors. According to Ongaro, this genetic adaptation impacts the way the body breaks down fats, ultimately "providing heat when stimulated by cold, which confers an advantage to Inuit populations in the Arctic.”
The study is published in the journal Nature Genetics.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-01960-y
TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; paleolithic
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Lazamataz's Ancestors?.............
1 posted on 11/22/2024 10:40:56 AM PST by Red Badger
To: Lazamataz
Your ancestors?................
2 posted on 11/22/2024 10:41:14 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
To: Red Badger; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
3 posted on 11/22/2024 10:45:33 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
To: SunkenCiv
Denisovan PinGGG!..............
4 posted on 11/22/2024 10:45:58 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
To: Red Badger
I’m SHOCKED! Shocked, I say! Humans would have sex relatively indiscriminately? (I suppose Denisovan women fall somewhere useful on the Hot/Crazy matrix.)
5 posted on 11/22/2024 10:47:05 AM PST by oldplayer
To: SunkenCiv
Men are pigs.............Film at eleven............
6 posted on 11/22/2024 10:48:28 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
To: Red Badger
"I did not have sex with that denisovan but we did share a good cigar".
7 posted on 11/22/2024 10:49:11 AM PST by BipolarBob (Our prodigal Haitian son has returned!! Prepare the fatted cat.)
To: oldplayer
Men are pigs.
Always have been...........
8 posted on 11/22/2024 10:49:14 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
To: Red Badger
Humans Had Sex With At Least Three Different Denisovan Populations
Yeah, well it was late on a Saturday night, last call, and the Denisovans were looking a lot better than they did earlier in the evening.
9 posted on 11/22/2024 10:49:52 AM PST by GreenHornet
To: GreenHornet
Fermented grape juice goggles..............
10 posted on 11/22/2024 10:51:19 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
To: oldplayer
Agreed. Every time I read the Old Testament, I amazed at God having to tell people who and what to NOT have sex with.
But then, the Canaanites had been hedonist for 4 centuries. (I use the term "hedonist" loosely, not technically, fellow religious history nerds.)
11 posted on 11/22/2024 10:51:58 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
To: Red Badger
Denisovan chicks were easy.
12 posted on 11/22/2024 10:52:06 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
To: Red Badger
Still looking for that missing link that doesn’t exist. Man is a created being, created in adult form, in the image of God, by the same God who created the universe and everything in it, not an animal, but a separate being, though, in order to exist in the world, has bodily functions and systems required, as do animals, to exist in our biosphere.
To: Red Badger
“Some people in Oceania carry up to 5 percent Denisovan DNA.”
Isn’t that a county in New York state?
14 posted on 11/22/2024 10:53:08 AM PST by dljordan (What would Michael Collins do?)
To: Red Badger
Denisovans, like Neanderthals, are just another form of human.
Look at Hteat Danes and Chihuahuas. Same species.
15 posted on 11/22/2024 10:53:46 AM PST by ZULU (Remember: ABBEY GATE, Kate Steinle, Joscelyn Nungary, Rachel Morin and Laken Riley. )
To: Red Badger; Lazamataz
Maybe Laz's ancestors hit it.
I know mine did.
( Photo credit : Nightcafe " Denisovan woman collecting fruit in the woods 2 - AI Generated Artwork "...)
16 posted on 11/22/2024 10:54:21 AM PST by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!),<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>)
To: Red Badger
lets face it, many men will stick it into anything with a hole
To: dljordan
18 posted on 11/22/2024 11:02:48 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
To: Red Badger
19 posted on 11/22/2024 11:03:51 AM PST by bray (It's not racist to be racist against races the DNC hates.)
To: oldplayer
Russians captured a ‘wild woman’ that they thought was an ‘ape-woman’ and caged her and charged men to have relations with her- she had a couple of offspring- which looked odd as well, and strong as a mule- but turns out they were fully human after all-
20 posted on 11/22/2024 11:06:01 AM PST by Bob434
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