Oldest living population in the world

_Elsa_

‘In another study, in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers found that when these ancestors of Aboriginals crossed through Asia, they may have interbred with Siberian people known as the Denisovans.

For that study, DNA was extracted from a finger bone excavated in the freezing temperatures of Siberia to analyse the migration of people to tropical parts of Asia and Australia more than 40,000 years ago.

Examining DNA from the finger, researchers from the Harvard Medical School in the US and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany concluded that the Denisovans – a primitive group of humans descended from Neanderthals – migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia. They contributed DNA to Aborigines along with present-day New Guineans and an indigenous tribe in the Philippines known as Mamanwa.

Aboriginal people had Siberian ancestors - To make the link between the Denisovans and indigenous Australians, the study looked at two Aboriginal populations, one of which was from the Northern Territory. The researchers concluded that Denisovans interbred with modern humans in South-East Asia 44,000 years ago, before Australia separated from Papua New Guinea.

“This paper helped fill in some empty pieces in the evolutionary puzzle that began after early humans left Africa and reinforces the view that humans have intermixed throughout history,” say the scientists behind the research in a summary of the findings.’ (Source)

The wizard has to take a 5-minute break. He’s been chatting so much that his mouth is dry.  Fortunately, he brought some water with him and once he takes a couple of zips he offers it to Jean-Luc. Now he can continue ……….

‘New findings offer a clearer picture of the ancestors of modern Siberians — and Native Americans. They come from groups that lived long ago in Asia. Some of their members mixed and then later spread into North America.

Three distinct groups of people migrated to Siberia. During the later Ice Age, some of them migrated into North America. That’s the finding of a new study. Clues to those migrations can be seen today in the genes of Siberians and Native Americans.

The story of these peoples is complex. Each incoming group largely replaced people already living in an area. But some mating between the newcomers and old-timers also took place, notes study leader Martin Sikora. An evolutionary geneticist, he works at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

His team’s findings appeared online June 5 in Nature.

Sikora’s group analyzed DNA from 34 people. All had been buried between 31,600 and 600 years ago in Siberia, in East Asia or in Finland. Sikora’s group compared their DNA with DNA collected earlier from very ancient and modern people who had lived across Europe, Asia and North America.

Two teeth proved important. They had been dug up at a Russian site. Known as Yana Rhinoceros Horn. This site was some 31,600 years old. The teeth there came from an unknown group of people. The researchers named this population the Ancient North Siberians. Around 38,000 years ago, these people migrated to Siberia from Europe and Asia. They adapted quickly to the region’s frigid Ice Age conditions, the team reports.’ (Source)

There is so much that Jean-Luc and his friends need to learn. He has to talk to Tiffi when he gets back. They will have to do more googling. 

“Maybe we also need to study more history,” Jean-Luc thinks to himself. 

Let’s continue - The cradle of civilization

Start at the beginning – Jean-Luc travels through time