Palaeontology

DNA of prehistoric humans found in caves

By T.K. Randall
April 28, 2017 ·  6 comments

Cave sediment can tell us much about who used to dwell there. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Denlah The remarkable breakthrough means that it should be possible to determine which prehistoric human species used to reside within any given cave even in the absence of skeletal remains.

The work involved collecting samples from seven different archaeological sites and then analyzing them to identify fragments of human mitochondrial DNA.At four of the sites the researchers found evidence of Neanderthals, while fragments of Denisovan DNA were also identified within a cave in Russia.

"This work represents an enormous scientific breakthrough," said Antonio Rosas from Spain's Natural Science Museum in Madrid.

"We can now tell which species of hominid occupied a cave and on which particular stratigraphic level, even when no bone or skeletal remains are present."

Source: BBC News | Comments (6)

Tags: DNA, Human, Caves