400,000-year-old human DNA adds new tangle to our origin story
The title is a play on words* to introduce a serious subject.
The oldest human DNA ever recovered is throwing scientists for a loop: The 400,000-year-old genetic material comes from bones that have been linked to Neanderthals in Spain but its signature is most similar to that of a different ancient human population from Siberia, known as the Denisovans.
Previous analysis of bones from the cave had led researchers to assume that the Sima de los Huesos people were closely related to Neanderthals on the basis of their skeletal features. But the mitochondrial DNA was far more similar to that of the Denisovans, an early human population that was thought to have split off from Neanderthals around 640,000 years ago. The first Denisovan specimens were identified in 2010, based on an analysis of 30,000-year-old bones excavated in Siberia.
This chart shows the relationships of the various species based on complete or nearly complete mitochondrial genomes.
Incidentally, this article is very characteristic of what paleoanthropologists, molecular biologists and related researchers are learning nowadays.
Scientists look at this and say, "Hmmmm. That's interesting. Wonder what that means. Let's see if we can figure it out."
Creationists more likely will look at this same information and say, "That's not possible because of..."
I look at this thread as a way to explore both the new data and its implications, and reasons creationists will present for dismissing it.
* "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." The Queen, in Lewis Carroll's
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). (Very similar to his
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.)
Edited by Coyote, : No reason given.
Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.
Belief gets in the way of learning--Robert A. Heinlein
How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?--Robert A. Heinlein
It's not what we don't know that hurts, it's what we know that ain't so--Will Rogers
If I am entitled to something, someone else is obliged to pay--Jerry Pournelle
If a religion's teachings are true, then it should have nothing to fear from science...--dwise1