Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments
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Publication Date
5-7-2021
Publication Title
Science
Volume Number
372
Issue Number
6542
Abstract
The value of dirty DNA Environmental DNA can identify the presence of species, even from the distant past. Surveying three cave sites in western Europe and southern Siberia, Vernot et al. identified nuclear DNA and confirmed that it is from the close relatives of anatomically modern humans—Neanderthal and Denisovan individuals. A phylogenetic analysis and modeling show that the DNA in sediment samples from several layers corresponds to previously studied skeletal remains. These results demonstrate that environmental data can be applied to study the population genetics of the extinct Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages, identifying a turnover of Neanderthal populations ∼100,000 years ago. Science , this issue p. eabf1667
Document Type
Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf1667
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Vernot, Benjamin; Zavala, Elena I.; Gómez-Olivencia, Asier; Jacobs, Zenobia; Slon, Viviane; Mafessoni, Fabrizio; Romagné, Frédéric; Pearson, Alice; Petr, Martin; Sala, Nohemi; Pablos, Adrián; Aranburu, Arantza; de Castro, José María Bermúdez; Carbonell, Eudald; Li, Bo; Krajcarz, Maciej T.; Krivoshapkin, Andrey I.; Kolobova, Kseniya A.; Kozlikin, Maxim B.; Shunkov, Michael V.; Derevianko, Anatoly P.; Viola, Bence; Grote, Steffi; Essel, Elena; Herráez, David López; Nagel, Sarah; Nickel, Birgit; Richter, Julia; Schmidt, Anna; Peter, Benjamin; Kelso, Janet; Roberts, Richard G.; and Arsuaga, Juan-Luis, "Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments" (2021). KIP Articles. 10118.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/10118
