Closed DNA Altai hominid.

Geneticists have completed the analysis of fossil DNA fragment of a finger, found in 2008 in Denisov cave in the Altai. The results were surprising, perhaps in the future will have to rewrite school textbooks of biology, and indeed to revise our views of human history.

The fact that the DNA from the finger does not fit into any of the known species of hominids. It is not a homo sapiens, and not parallel branch Neanderthals with homo erectus. It turns out that only recently (30-48 thousand years ago), that is in the Stone Age, the planet lived not only homo sapiens with Neanderthals, but even some humanoids. Moreover, at least, in the Altai, they all lived together.

Work with the genetic material carried out a joint team of scientists from different countries, including leytsipgskogo Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Max Planck (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Academy of Sciences, as well as U.S. academic institutions, and Austria. The results published on 24 March in the journal Nature.

The researchers concluded that the DNA sample from the finger belongs to the hominid that lived in the Altai region of 30 to 48 thousand years ago. Previous excavations in the Altai and found the remains of bones earlier suggest the possibility that modern humans and Neanderthals have mastered this territory, at least 125 thousand years ago.

DNA samples from Denisov cave compared not only with the above examples, but also with the 54 DNA samples of modern humans, as well as the typical man, who lived in Siberia about 30 thousand years ago, with six Neanderthal age of about 40 thousand years, with modern conventional chimpanzees and bonobos with. Vain: the sample differs from them all. In particular, differences in human DNA is twice larger than that of Neanderthal DNA.

Incidentally, the first classification of hominid found performing with the help of DNA analysis. Previously it was done on bones that were not very reliable (in this case was found in the Altai finger would not have committed any discovery). However, in 2009, was assembled mitochondrial genome for homo sapiens, and Neanderthal man, so now we can compare all the new discoveries with these patterns, and thanks to the new biotechnologies will be done a lot of discoveries in anthropology.

Computer analysis of DNA on the transfer of individual fragments of chromosomes from species to species will roughly calculate the rate of evolution. It turns out that the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees lived 6 million years ago. Then, common ancestors of the people, Neanderthals and hominid from Denisov cave lived from 779,300 to 1,313,500 years ago. And finally, the common ancestors of people and Neanderthals lived from 321,200 to 618,000 years ago.

In this classification may be changed, when they analyzed DNA samples from the so-called Homo floresiensis (also known as the "Hobbit"), found in 2003 in Indonesia. Genome hobbit is not yet deciphered.

Now anthropologists are beginning to gravitate to the view that over the past 6-7 million years on Earth existed, at least 20 species of hominids, related to modern humans. It certainly there are areas where they lived in the neighborhood at one time.

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