instead of neatly clarifying human evolution, the finding is adding new mysteries.
In a paper in the journal Nature, scientists reported Wednesday that they had saved
ancient human DNA from a fossil dating back about 400,000 years, shattering the previous
record of 100,000 years.
The mismatch between the anatomical and genetic evidence surprised the scientists, who
are now rethinking human evolution over the past few hundred thousand years. It is possible,
for example, that there are many extinct human populations that scientists have yet to discover.
Right now, we’ve basically generated a big question mark,” said Matthias Meyer, a geneticist at
the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and a co-author
of the new study.
Hints at new hidden difficulties in the human story came from a 400,000-year-old bone
found in a cave in Spain called “the pit of bones”. The scientific team used new methods to
extract the ancient DNA from the fossil. Finding such ancient human DNA was a major
advance, said David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the
research. “That’s an amazing, game-changing thing,” he said. When Dr. Meyer and his
colleagues found ancient human DNA inside they thought that it would be a very early
Neanderthal,” Dr. Meyer said.
But the DNA did not match that of Neanderthals. Dr. Meyer then compared it to the DNA
of the Denisovans, the ancient human lineage that he and his colleagues had discovered in
Siberia in 2010. He was shocked to find that it was similar. Everybody had a hard time
believing it at first, Dr. Meyer said. So we generated more and more data to nail it down. The
extra research confirmed that the DNA belonged on the Denisovan branch of the human family
tree. The new finding is hard to settle with the picture of human evolution that has been
emerging based on fossils and ancient DNA…
1. The oldest DNA evidence found by scientists…
A. Added new questions about human evolution
B. Solved the problem of human evolution

C. Added more workload
2. The recent ancient human DNA from a fossil dating back about...
A. 100,000 years
B. 400, 000 years
C. 500, 000 years
3. There was the mismatch between the and evidence
A. Historical and biological
B. Anatomical and genetic
C. Historical and genetic
4. Where was the oldest DNA evidence called “the pit of bones” found?
A. Spain
B. USA
C. Russia, Siberia
5. Scientists were to find that “the pit of bones” and DNA of the Denisovans
were similar.
A. Happy

НаsтяПоможет777    3   29.10.2020 13:03    4