Introducing Humans' Newest Ancestral Relative
Scientists have discovered an entirely new species of ancient human. The Denisovans lived in Central Asia around 40,000 years ago, and we all have some of their DNA from back when they got busy with our own ancestors.
The discovery was made possible by a 40,000 year-old finger bone found in a Siberian cave. Scientists sequenced the DNA in the bone, compared it with a fossil wisdom tooth (above) and discovered they were both from an entirely new species which split off from the Neanderthals about 400,000 years ago. Nobody knows what the Denisovans looked like, but it's safe to say they were one of our sexiest ancestors: They interbred with the first modern humans coming out of Africa, and tests show current residents of islands off the coast of Australia share about 5 percent of their DNA with Denisovans.