1. Name (more precisely, the working title) - "Denisova 11".

2. Source of information: nuclear DNA obtained from 175 mg of bone powder. Find: bone fragment 24.7 × 8.4 mm, location in the skeleton not established.

3. The age of the girl is over 13 years old (as stated in one of the scientific reports, "the age of the skeletal remains is more than 13 years before the time of death").

4. Father is a Denisovan, mother is a Neanderthal.

5. The parents of "Denisova 11" are not purebred representatives of their subspecies, they carry the genetic trace of previous crossings, which is reflected in the genome of the girl. So, her father had at least one Neanderthal ancestor during his lifetime.

6. The ancestors of Denisova 11 along the Neanderthal line were probably relatively recent (about 20,000 years before the life of the girl) newcomers from Europe: in particular, their genetic connection with the inhabitants of the Vindija cave (Croatia) can be traced.

7. 1.2% of Denisova 11 DNA fragments correspond to modern humans, 38.6% to Neanderthals and 42.3% to Denisovans.

Professor Svante Paabo, head of the laboratory of the Institute for the Study of the History of Man of the Max Planck Society (Leipzig, Germany):

“And to this day we are all hybrids. In the genome of individual groups modern people you can find 10-15% of Neanderthal genes and 1.5-5% of Denisovan genes. Even such a low proportion affects, according to one of our hypotheses, the adaptability to high altitude inhabitants of Tibet and to the cold - Greenland. Why not more? First, populations of subspecies of Homo did not meet and intermingle as often. Second, there was selective selection against hybridization.

Vivian Sloane, Svante Paabo's Lab:

– We carefully checked all our results and the purity of their receipt. Such versions as mixing of material in the laboratory, errors in analytical equipment, and even the consequences of cannibalism were excluded. We can confidently say: the genome of the daughter of a Denisovan man and a representative of the Altai Neanderthal population was sequenced(which split over 390,000 years ago - site note)

It has also been established that the interbreeding of various subspecies of hominids in the Pleistocene epoch took place practically at every contact of different populations.

Location of Denisova Cave

Scientific director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS Academician Anatoly Panteleevich Derevyanko:

Along with the Denisovans, Neanderthals also lived in the cave. The question naturally arises: how did they coexist? I recently made two hypotheses.

The first is antagonistic, when two species compete up to mutual destruction and even the consumption of their own kind for food. This is supported by the absence of objects of the Neanderthal industry in the Denisova Cave - only fragments of the remains of themselves. Although, I note that in the Okladnikov cave, located 45 km (in a straight line), a sufficient number of Neanderthal stone products were found, more archaic compared to Denisovans.

The second hypothesis is that there were complementary relationships between Neanderthals and Denisovans, up to interbreeding. In favor of this option is last discovery placed in the subtitle.

In the same eleventh layer, a fragment of a human bone was found in 2016, so tiny that it has not yet been possible to establish its exact place in the skeleton. But sequencing of the DNA obtained from the bone showed that this girl, at least 13 years old, was a hybrid of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan, and in the fourth generation. Note that mixed-breed offspring of different species (for example, horses and donkeys) are not capable of further reproduction. Since Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred repeatedly, this implies that they belong to the same biological species, with all the already established cultural and genetic differences.

This is an extremely important fundamental discovery. Denisovans and Neanderthals interbred with early people modern look, formed in Africa 200-150 thousand years ago. All this testifies to the unity of the biological species that settled in Africa and Eurasia. And this attracts more and more of our colleagues from all over the world to Denisova Cave: archaeologists, geneticists, anthropologists, paleontologists.

Did this discovery bring new knowledge about appearance Denisovans? Not yet. Genetic analysis provides incomplete information, since not all parts of the ancient genome can be restored. It all depends on the length of the chain and its sections that can be investigated. So, about the first girl from Denisova Cave, we only know that she was dark-skinned and brown-eyed, plus her approximate age.

Denisova Cave is located in the valley of the Anui River, 4 km from the village of Black Anui in the Altai Territory.

The diagram shows the difference in the mitochondrial genomes of modern humans (now living and the late Pleistocene era), Neanderthal and "Denis" humans.

Denisova Cave is one of the most famous archaeological sites of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. She keeps traces of activity ancient man. Employees of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS have been excavating in Denisova Cave for many years. Geophysicists, paleobotanists, anthropologists, paleontologists and other scientists work together with archaeologists. The excavations are supervised by the Deputy Director of the Institute Dr. historical sciences Mikhail Shunkov. The researchers sifted cubic meters of soil, but no remains of ancient people could be found for many years. Apparently, our ancestors did not bury their relatives in caves. And yet, in 2008, unique studies were crowned with success - scientists discovered three teeth and a phalanx of the little finger, presumably a girl of five to seven years old, who lived from 30 to 50 thousand years ago.

The little finger was donated to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Johansson Krause from the laboratory of paleogenetics, headed by Professor Svante Paabo (by the way, in the same laboratory last year the Neanderthal genome was deciphered), isolated mitochondrial DNA, according to which he compiled the complete genome of the "Denis" man. The results of a joint study by Russian and German scientists were published in the journal Nature on March 24 this year.

DNA was extracted from 30 mg of little finger bone powder. Over the past millennia, the molecule has broken up into fragments, scientists have found 9908 such pieces of DNA. A large number of fragments were deciphered (sequenced) and a “puzzle” was assembled from them - a molecule of mitochondrial DNA of an ancient person. For greater reliability, the genome reconstruction procedure was repeated, taking DNA from a different bone fragment and using a different sequencing technique. The results were reproduced with high accuracy. Scientists believe that the reconstructed DNA really turned out to be “ancient”, not containing late “pollutions”.

The researchers compared the decoded genome with the genomes of 54 modern people, one ancient person from the Kostenki-14 site on the Don, about 30 thousand years old, six European Neanderthals and two Neanderthals found in the Teshik-Tash grotto in Uzbekistan and in the Okladnikov cave in Altai (in a hundred kilometers about Denisova Cave). The total size of the mitochondrial genome in all three human species and chimpanzees turned out to be almost the same - 16,550 -
16,570 base pairs.

It turned out that the man from the Denisova Cave is also genetically far from modern man like the Neanderthal. Moreover, there are twice as many differences in the Denisovan and modern human genomes than there are genetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals. The last common ancestor of all three human species lived about a million years ago, and the paths of sapiens and Neanderthals diverged about 466 thousand years ago.

Based on the analysis of only mitochondrial DNA, it is impossible to say for sure what kind of relationship the "Denis" man was with sapiens and Neanderthals. Morphological features species are determined not by mitochondrial, but by nuclear DNA. Studies show that the information contained in the mitochondrial and nuclear genes does not always coincide. The mitochondrial genome is sensitive even to episodic interspecific hybridization, and only the nuclear genome carries exclusively species traits.

Nevertheless, it is already clear that 30-50 thousand years ago the population of Altai was genetically diverse: people of different genetic lines (Neanderthals, Sapiens and Denisovans) lived together on the same territory. Archaeological evidence supports this. The Denisova Cave layer, where the little finger was found, contains a mixture of Middle Paleolithic artifacts (most likely left by Neanderthals) and Late Paleolithic artifacts made by sapiens. In archaeological finds, traces of continuity, mixing and flow of different cultures into each other are noticeable.

Currently, there are two theories of the formation of modern man. Some researchers believe that he appeared in Africa. Others adhere to the multi-regional hypothesis, according to which sapiens also originated in Eurasia. One of the authors of the article under discussion, Director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician A.P. Derevyanko, is a supporter of the multiregional theory, according to which the blood of not only a small handful of African sapiens, but also Neanderthals, and perhaps Asian archanthropes, flows in our veins. The results of the study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of a man from Denisova Cave cannot serve as a weighty argument either for or against his theory. But still, the emerging image of three unrelated groups of people living together on the same territory, combined with continuity and mixing of cultures, gives this version credibility.

By the way, quite recently the theory of A.P. Derevyanko received another brilliant confirmation. In the journal Science, published on May 7, an article by the same group of German scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig was published with a report on the complete decoding of the Neanderthal nuclear genome. Now there is practically no doubt left - Neanderthal blood flows in the veins of modern Europeans and Asians.

The nature of man, the origin of man - this is what excites people from the most ancient times. There are many versions, theories. Scientists are conducting research, trying to find answers to all questions. After reading the article, you will learn about another subspecies of ancient extinct people.

The Denisov man, or Denisovan, presumably existed in the Soloneshensky district of the Altai Territory, not far from the Denisova cave. Evidence of this was found in different periods and in different layers of the cave.

At the moment, only five fragments have been identified that allow us to talk about the Denisovan man. However, these traces are still not enough to restore its appearance completely. However, the fragments found are enough to argue that the remains of this person are different from the remains of Homo Sapiens, as well as from the remains of a Neanderthal.

Denisova cave

This cave is the most popular archaeological monument that Altai can boast of. Denisov man lived here, 250 kilometers from the city of Biysk. The cave is quite large, with an area of ​​270 m².

She is close to settlements, belongs to the horizontal type, which attracts a large number of tourists. However, there are also archaeologists here, whose hard work nevertheless led to a result.

According to the results of research, in the lower layers of the cave, whose age is about 120 thousand years, stone tools and jewelry were found, as well as traces of an ancient man, who was called Denisov.

Fragments of the remains of the Denisovan man

During the existence of the Soviet state, three molars were found in size much larger than the teeth of Homo sapiens. According to the examination, they belonged to a young male. A fragment of a finger phalanx was also found, the analysis of this element is still being carried out.

In a later period, already in 2008, another element was found - the bone of the phalanx of the child's finger.

Denisovan genome

The found fragment in the form of a Denisovan finger phalanx was studied by a team of scientists from the Leipzig Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The study showed that the mitochondrial DNA of Denisovans differs from the mitochondrial DNA of Homo sapiens by 385 nucleotides. It is worth noting that the Neanderthal genome differs from the Homo Sapiens genome in 202 nucleotides.

Denisov man is closer to Neanderthal than to Homo sapiens. It is also worth noting that his genes were found in the Melanesians, and this allows us to talk about the mass interbreeding of people at the moment when the Melanesians left Africa and migrated to the southeast.

Descendants of Denisovan man

According to studies, Denisovan man separated as a subspecies about 400-800 thousand years ago. Today, the study of the fragments found in it allows us to find its genes in many modern nations. For example, most similar elements are found among the inhabitants of the countries of Southeast Asia and southern China, despite the fact that traces of these ancient people were found in Siberia.

It was also found that the named subspecies of extinct people, as well as the Neanderthal, passed on the genes responsible for the immune system to the European population. Thanks to this discovery, it was also possible to make computer model, demonstrating the migration path of different types of ancestors of modern people and the places of their meetings with the Denisovans.

Scientists from Sweden believe that it is possible to find traces of the Denisovan man by comparing the found DNA with the DNA of modern people.

After the comparison, information was obtained both about the similarity of the Denisovan with modern man, and about the matches found in the Neanderthal and Denisovan. It was also possible to find out that the Denisovan genes are contained in the genotypes of people belonging to the oceanic and non-African populations.

Work at Harvard Medical School

According to research at Harvard Medical School, Denisovans are much further from modern humans than Neanderthals, although they were originally considered cousins. It was believed that Neanderthals and Denisovans were equally different from Homo sapiens. However, Harvard scientist David Reich managed to refute this.

However, the scientist himself says that such a difference can also be explained by the fact that Denisovans interbred with different types ancient people.

The point of view of the German scientist Johannes Krause

German geneticist Johannes Krause from the University of Tübingen believes that the fragments found should not be ignored. Together with his colleagues, the scientist is studying the genome of the Denisovan man for the presence of traces of interbreeding. The fact is that the Denisovan teeth found are very large for this type of ancient man. It seems that its immediate ancestor was a primitive species.

According to the professor, the strangeness with teeth may well be explained by the version that the Denisovans interbred with archaic versions of people. Moreover, according to the professor, most likely it was a species already known to us, since most of them have not been studied at the gene level.

What do London scientists say?

London researcher Chris Stringer from a museum in the UK believes that while settling in Europe and Western Asia, he could well meet Denisovan man, which led to mass crossing. Also, an upright can be an excellent option, since it was common in many territories and could meet Denisovans.

Of course, these disputes can be resolved using the usual DNA analysis of all these species, but this is impossible, since they simply have not been preserved. Most hominins lived in hot environments, and therefore the genome was not preserved in their remains, unlike the remains of Neanderthals and Denisovans, which were found mainly in more severe and cold conditions.

The role of crossing in human nature

To date, many species and subspecies of ancient people, who are our ancestors, are already known. At the same time, one should not deny the fact that after they left Africa, they mated with many other species. It is likely that some more interesting genomes will be identified in the future.

At the moment, it is already known that mass crossings occurred constantly, including with as yet unidentified hominins. According to many scientists, interest in other species arose about 700 thousand years ago.

On the basis of the conducted research, it can be concluded that at some point in time, human evolution was divided into several lines, one of which subsequently led to the Denisovan man, and the more ancient ancestors of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals came out of the other. Scientists also found that Neanderthals, Denisovans and other species of Homo Sapiens lived in Altai for some time and interbred with each other. In addition, crossing occurred with other species that were encountered by Denisovans in different periods of time and in different territories.

It is a pity that the DNA of other types of ancient people was not preserved, otherwise this connection could be traced more clearly. but modern sciences about a person do not stand still, and perhaps soon we will learn something new about our origin.

The fact that the species of ancient people discovered in 2010 in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains was more culturally and spiritually developed than its contemporary Neanderthal was concluded by the author of the find, Academician of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Derevyanko. They say that the life around him was too advanced for those times - a Denisovan could not only sharpen tools well, but even drill holes, and made a lot of curious decorations. Now geneticists have confirmed the cultural superiority of the Denisovan over the Neanderthal. And in general, we found out a lot of interesting details ...

Denisovan knew what is "good" and what is "bad"...

As a basis for our research, we took DNA samples from both Denisovans and Neanderthals, as well as other varieties of ancient people aged from 30 to 40 thousand years and older, - the candidate of biological sciences, head of the laboratory of evolutionary bioinformatics and theoretical genetics ICG SB RAS Dmitry Afonnikov . - And compared their miRNAs. For those who do not know, this is a gene structure that interacts with matrix ribonucleic acid and regulates protein synthesis at once in a group of genes.

Simply put, miRNA is a natural stopcock that, like an arbiter, decides which traits will dominate in us and which ones will die out. So, as it turned out, 3 microRNAs in Denisovans and 7 in Neanderthals turned out to be especially interesting. However, they performed completely different functions - thanks to them, Neanderthals became stronger, and Denisovans became smarter. And not for years!

In order to somehow adapt, the Neanderthal man had to have good tissue regeneration, - says researcher at the ICG SB RAS, Candidate of Biological Sciences Konstantin Vladimirovich Gunbin, - And we were lucky to find those microRNAs that are just responsible for these processes. But in the case of Denisovans, they directly regulate the work of genes that are responsible for the formation and functioning of the prefrontal zone of the cerebral cortex - it is she who is primarily responsible for receiving and processing information, as well as the ability to live normally in society, distinguish between good deeds and bad ones, and foresee the consequences of their actions.

...and "smarter" faster than modern man!

Moreover, according to scientists, the human brain from the Denisova Cave developed even faster than that of the modern one.

This is evidenced by the number of mutations in the genes responsible for the frontal zone of the brain, explains geneticist Dmitry Afonnikov. – Denisovans have a lot of them, so we can say that they “got smarter” faster than modern people. We can't say for sure yet. But experience suggests that everything was exactly like this - in any case, the mind of today's man and monkeys evolves according to such an algorithm.

But, as you know, both branches - both Neanderthals and Denisovans - turned out to be dead ends. Which, however, does not mean that they disappeared into the dust of millennia without any trace. For example, the ancient homo sapiens, as a result of crossing, borrowed immunity from the Denisovan against viral infections. This is especially true for the inhabitants of distant Malaysia - it has already been established that their ancestors "befriended" the Denisovans most closely - forever accepting from 4 to 6 genes of the "Altai Man" into their gene pool.

From the dossier "KP"

IN scientific journal"Nature" in 2010 published two publications concerning the phalanx of the little finger of a creature found in 2008 in Denisova Cave in Altai by scientists from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among the authors of the materials are the director of the Institute, Academician Anatoly Panteleevich Derevyanko and his deputy for scientific work Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail Vasilyevich Shunkov. The research was carried out by an international team with the participation of both Russian specialists and the famous paleogeneticist Svante Paabo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, Germany), who previously led the work on deciphering the Neanderthal genome. The editors of the journal "Nature" also designated the study of the remains of the most ancient human ancestors in the list of the twelve most significant events in 2010 in the world of science.

Leipzig, Germany, led by Kay Prufer and Svante Paabo, studied the nuclear genome of a Neanderthal lady who lived in Altai about 50,000 years ago. Like any serious study, this work has a background. Svante Paabo and his colleagues began sequencing the Neanderthal nuclear genome in 2006. This is not an easy task, since ancient DNA has long since fallen apart and is often contaminated with the nucleic acids of microbes and modern humans. However, in 2010, they found out that Neanderthals gifted their genes Homo sapiens living outside of Africa.

Now scientists have received a refined version of the genome, in which the position of each nucleotide is verified at least 50 times.

Neanderthal female finger phalanx

The material for the study was DNA from the phalanx of the ring finger or little finger of an adult woman who lived in Denisova cave in Altai. The phalanx was found in 2010 by Denisova Cave researchers Anatoly Derevyanko and Mikhail Shunkov and transferred to Leipzig for analysis.

Do not confuse the Neanderthal population of Denisova Cave with Denisovans.

They lived there a little later, about 40 thousand years ago, and although they were related to Asian Neanderthals, they were an independent group of the genus Homo. by the same group of researchers led by Svante Paabo and also from the phalanx of the finger.

The genome showed that the parents of the Neanderthal woman were closely related. They were either relatives cousins and sister, or maybe uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, grandfather and granddaughter, grandmother and grandson. The scientists concluded that consanguineous marriages were common among Neanderthals and Denisovans, as they lived in small groups and were limited in their choice of a mate. Researchers believe that the number of Neanderthals and Denisovans at that time was steadily declining, their time was coming to an end.

Comparison of the genomes of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans showed that different groups of hominids in Late Pleistocene, 12-126 thousand years ago, met, communicated and left offspring.

The exchange of genes did not occur often, but quite regularly.

Excavations in Denisova Cave

Approximately 77-114 thousand years ago, Neanderthals split into Asian and European populations. Neanderthals living in the Caucasus exchanged genes with the ancestors of modern Eurasians and inhabitants of Australia and Oceania, Altai Neanderthals - with Denisovans, Denisovans from unknown caves - with the ancestors of modern inhabitants of mainland Asia and American Indians.

The Neanderthal contribution to the genome of modern Eurasians is, according to researchers, from 1.5 to 2.1%.

And the Denisovan genome, unlike the Neanderthal, contains 2.7-5.8% of the DNA of some unknown ancient hominids. Perhaps they separated 1.2-4 million years ago from the ancestors of modern people, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Researchers do not exclude that this mysterious ancestor - Homo erectus erectus, whose fossilized bones anthropologists find, but the DNA sequence has not yet been deciphered. Further research will show if this is the case.

Scientists have compiled a list of DNA sequences that distinguish modern humans from our closest extinct relatives. The list of differences turned out to be quite short. Changes affect, among other things, the genes responsible for cell division and the regulation of other genes. In order to find out how these modifications influenced the appearance of modern man and his biology, geneticists need to work further.