The Denisovan people evolved a variant of the MUC19 immune gene, which eventually found its way into humans through inbreeding. In most of the world, that variant is rare, but it’s common among people ...

A simplified model of human evolution showing how humans are related to Neanderthals and Denisovans. Arrows between different branches show mating that occurred. Events that happened further back in ...

Denisovan DNA in modern humans A specific variant of the MUC19 gene, affecting mucosal barriers, is found in both Denisovans and Indigenous Americans, suggesting it was passed through Neanderthals to ...

During the Japanese invasion of northern China in 1933, a man was hired to build a bridge across the Songhua river near the city of Harbin. As he was digging, he found a large, ancient cranium ...

The legacy of Neandertals in modern people has often been framed as a genetic gift for fighting infection. This time, the ...

New protein analysis suggests Homo erectus passed genes to Denisovans, creating an indirect evolutionary link to Homo sapiens.

Humanity’s ancestry has grown far clearer thanks to our ability to obtain ancient DNA. We now know that, as humans left Africa, they interbred with the groups they met there, Neanderthals and ...

People from Papua New Guinea and north-east Australia carry small amounts of DNA of an unidentified, extinct human species, a new research analysis has suggested. Statistical geneticist carried out ...

A new Nature study reports that proteins preserved in 400,000-year-old Homo erectus teeth carry a signal also seen in Denisovans, raising the possibility that these two ancient human relatives once ...

We’re all descended from H erectus, so it feels like something is missing from the writeup. Edit: the abstract mentions H erectus from Dmanisi (from 1.8 Mya) not having this variant, while the new ...