Call it the Pleistocene hanky panky chart . Now that scientist have sequence a terminated Neanderthal genome , we have more evidence than ever that early Homo sapiens had children with Neanderthals and Denisovans tens of thousands of years ago .
This chart , from Nature , is part of a newspaper bring out this calendar week by evolutionary biologist Svante Pääbo ’s squad at the Max Planck Institute in Germany , where they sequenced an total Neanderthal genome from a well - preserved toe pearl . It show three bed early human groups — Homo sapiens , Neanderthal , and Denisovan — as well as an unknown one that might be Homo erectus . We see when these groups diverged , and when they ( ahem ) came together again .
By see the new Neanderthal genome , Pääbo ’s team was able to determine that genes from this early human group had entered the Homo sapiens genome , just as Denisovan genes had . Though previous sequence from both Neanderthals and Denisovans had intimate that gene from these human chemical group had found their room into Homo sapiens , this latest paper bolster that evidence . The more we see about our distant ancestor ’ genomes , the more it seems that Neanderthals , Denisovans and Homo erectus were our distant human cousins rather than disjoined mintage .

Also , this paper ’s finding suggest that dramatically different human groups likely formed some alliances when they met each other . Even if some of those groups die out , they spend chiliad of class sharing cultures and habitats with Homo sapiens . They are part of our heritage .
We ’ve also learned more about the biography of the Neanderthal whose DNA we sequenced . Writes Carl Zimmerin the New York Times :
Dr. Paabo and his colleagues can distinguish the parentage of each piece of DNA — whether it came from the Neanderthal ’s mother or sire . With an X chromosome from each parent , the toe belonged to a female .

A closelipped look at these two sets of desoxyribonucleic acid reveal that the boorish female person was extremely inbred . Her two maternal Seth of gene were superposable for foresightful stretches . Such similarity can only get about when close relative have nestling .
“ We do n’t know if this is typical of all Neanderthals , or just this universe in Siberia , ” say Dr. Paabo . It will take more gamy - caliber Neanderthal genomes to settle that question .
anthropologist have long believe that Neanderthals lived in small , quarantined groups in Europe . Inbreeding would have been unwashed under such consideration .

Read the complete scientific studyin Nature .
anthropologydenisovansEvolutionHuman evolutionneanderthalsScience
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