Resumen de Milk tooth reveals oldest Denisovan
Three becomes four. The sparse fossil record of the Denisovans - ancient humans who lived in what is now Siberia - has gained one more specimen: a tiny, worn tooth belonging to a child. The Denisovans are perhaps the most mysterious of all ancient hominins. They were discovered in 2010 when geneticists were sequencing DNA from ancient bones, assuming they belonged to Neanderthals. The DNA from a 50,000-year-old finger-bone fragment turned out to be so different from Neanderthal gene sequences that the researchers concluded it must represent a separate group. Later genetic studies suggested that these distinct hominins split from the Neanderthals between 470,000 and 190,000 years ago. They were named the Denisovans after the Denisova cave in Siberia, where the fingerbone fragment was found. Later, Denisovan DNA turned up in two teeth recovered from the cave.
