Madoness
that shadow behind lost
A new "species" of caveman that lived alongside Neanderthals and early humans up to 50,000 years ago has been identified by scientists.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00PM GMT 24 Mar 2010
Archaeologists inside of Denisova cave Photo: AP
A view from a rock above Denisova cave to the excavation field camp in in Altai Mountains of southern Siberia Photo: AP
The creature known as X-woman and identified by DNA taken from a tiny piece of finger bone – is a previously unknown early human, or hominin, that came "out of Africa" one million years ago.
It follows the discovery of another human species, the tiny 'Hobbit' or Homo floresiensis, found in Indonesia in 2003.
The bone fragment was found in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia which is rich in stone tools and bone implements having been intermittently occupied by ancestors of humans for 125,000 years.
Dr Johannes Krause and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Lepizig analysed the genetic material contained in mitochondria that provide power to cells and is passed only down the maternal line.
The analysis indicates this mtDNA derives from a previously unrecognised African migration distinct from the ones undertaken by the ancestors of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.
The findings published online in Nature show the creature shared a common ancestor with modern human and Neanderthal mtDNAs about one million years ago.
The age of the fossil also suggests this hominin species might have coexisted with Neanderthals and modern humans in that region of the world.
Dr Krause said the individual lived "between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago" at a time when Neanderthals were less than 80 miles away alongside early humans.
He said: "Representatives of three genetically distinct hominin lineages may all have been present in this region at about the same time."
The presence of H. floresiensis in Indonesia about 17,000 years ago and of the new caveman in southern Siberia about 40,000 years ago "suggest multiple hominin lineages coexisted for long periods of time in Eurasia".
Prof Terry Brown, of Manchester University, who reviewed the paper for the journal, said: "Their discovery is remarkable not just for the insight it gives into the human past.
"For the first time a hominin has been described, not from the morphology of its fossilised bones, but from the sequence of its DNA."
He said: "Forty thousand years ago, the planet was more crowded than we thought.
"The demonstration that a bone fragment can provide evidence for an unknown hominin will surely prompt more studies of this kind and, possibly, increase the crowd of ancestors that early modern humans met when they travelled into Eurasia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...-is-new-ancestor-of-man-claim-scientists.html
On the same topic
http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/03/is-xwoman-really-a-new-species.html
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00PM GMT 24 Mar 2010
The creature known as X-woman and identified by DNA taken from a tiny piece of finger bone – is a previously unknown early human, or hominin, that came "out of Africa" one million years ago.
It follows the discovery of another human species, the tiny 'Hobbit' or Homo floresiensis, found in Indonesia in 2003.
The bone fragment was found in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia which is rich in stone tools and bone implements having been intermittently occupied by ancestors of humans for 125,000 years.
Dr Johannes Krause and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Lepizig analysed the genetic material contained in mitochondria that provide power to cells and is passed only down the maternal line.
The analysis indicates this mtDNA derives from a previously unrecognised African migration distinct from the ones undertaken by the ancestors of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.
The findings published online in Nature show the creature shared a common ancestor with modern human and Neanderthal mtDNAs about one million years ago.
The age of the fossil also suggests this hominin species might have coexisted with Neanderthals and modern humans in that region of the world.
Dr Krause said the individual lived "between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago" at a time when Neanderthals were less than 80 miles away alongside early humans.
He said: "Representatives of three genetically distinct hominin lineages may all have been present in this region at about the same time."
The presence of H. floresiensis in Indonesia about 17,000 years ago and of the new caveman in southern Siberia about 40,000 years ago "suggest multiple hominin lineages coexisted for long periods of time in Eurasia".
Prof Terry Brown, of Manchester University, who reviewed the paper for the journal, said: "Their discovery is remarkable not just for the insight it gives into the human past.
"For the first time a hominin has been described, not from the morphology of its fossilised bones, but from the sequence of its DNA."
He said: "Forty thousand years ago, the planet was more crowded than we thought.
"The demonstration that a bone fragment can provide evidence for an unknown hominin will surely prompt more studies of this kind and, possibly, increase the crowd of ancestors that early modern humans met when they travelled into Eurasia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...-is-new-ancestor-of-man-claim-scientists.html
On the same topic
http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/03/is-xwoman-really-a-new-species.html