30,000-year-old girl's pinkie points to new early human species
An overlooked female pinkie bone put in storage after it was discovered in a Siberian cave two years ago points to the existence of a previously unknown prehistoric human species, anthropologists say.
And the lineage of that species may survive today in some people in Papua New Guinea and nearby islands, scientists say.
A report on the discovery of the finger was published in the December 23 edition of the scientific journal Nature.
Anthropologists say the 30,000- to 50,000-year-old finger is evidence of a new population of hominids they call Denisovans. The name is derived from the southern Siberian cave in which the finger bone was found.
Geneticists say the finger probably belonged to a 6- or 7-year-old girl....
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And the lineage of that species may survive today in some people in Papua New Guinea and nearby islands, scientists say.
A report on the discovery of the finger was published in the December 23 edition of the scientific journal Nature.
Anthropologists say the 30,000- to 50,000-year-old finger is evidence of a new population of hominids they call Denisovans. The name is derived from the southern Siberian cave in which the finger bone was found.
Geneticists say the finger probably belonged to a 6- or 7-year-old girl....