Denisovan

Traces from the past

Scientists recover an ancient woman’s DNA from a 20,000-year-old pendant more

Nobel Prize 2022 for Svante Pääbo

The director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig is honoured for his pioneering work in the field of palaeogenetics, of which he is considered the founder more

An innovative 40,000-year-old culture in China

A well-preserved Palaeolithic site in northern China reveals a new and previously unidentified set of cultural innovations more

Oldest genome from Wallacea shows previously unknown ancient human relations

International research team isolates DNA from modern human buried 7,000 years ago on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi more

Pleistocene sediment DNA from Denisova Cave

Sediment DNA tracks 300,000 years of hominin and animal presence at Denisova Cave more

Neandertals had older mothers and younger fathers

Researchers analyzed the genomes of more than 27.000 Icelanders to find out which parts of our genomes contain Neandertal DNA more

The Neandertal Genome Project

In 1997, Svante Pääbo, then at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, analyzed DNA from the mitochondria of a Neandertal. This was the first time DNA from an extinct form of humans could be studied. In 2006, he initiated the “Neandertal Genome Project” at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. With financial support from the Max Planck Society, Pääbo and his colleagues developed methods to more efficiently extract and analyze DNA fragments from ancient remains with the ultimate goal to study the complete genome of Neandertals. more

First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans

Denisovan mandible likely represents the earliest hominin fossil on the Tibetan Plateau more

Neandertal mother, Denisovan father!

Newly-sequenced genome sheds light on interactions between ancient hominins more

Ancient DNA sheds new light on Neanderthal evolution

Genetic evidence suggests further migration to Europe 220,000 and 470,000 years ago more

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Traces from the past

Scientists recover an ancient woman’s DNA from a 20,000-year-old pendant more

Nobel Prize 2022 for Svante Pääbo

The director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig is honoured for his pioneering work in the field of palaeogenetics, of which he is considered the founder more

An innovative 40,000-year-old culture in China

A well-preserved Palaeolithic site in northern China reveals a new and previously unidentified set of cultural innovations more

Pleistocene sediment DNA from Denisova Cave

Sediment DNA tracks 300,000 years of hominin and animal presence at Denisova Cave more

Neandertals had older mothers and younger fathers

Researchers analyzed the genomes of more than 27.000 Icelanders to find out which parts of our genomes contain Neandertal DNA more

First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans

Denisovan mandible likely represents the earliest hominin fossil on the Tibetan Plateau more

Neandertal mother, Denisovan father!

Newly-sequenced genome sheds light on interactions between ancient hominins more

Ancient DNA sheds new light on Neanderthal evolution

Genetic evidence suggests further migration to Europe 220,000 and 470,000 years ago more

400,000-year-old fossils from Spain provide earliest genetic evidence of Neandertals

Analysis of nuclear DNA from Sima de los Huesos hominins provides evidence of their relationship to Neandertals more

Earliest modern human sequenced

Researchers discover fragments of Neandertal DNA in the genome of a 45,000-year-old modern human from Siberia more

Neandertal genome project reaches its goal

Researchers compile definitive list of the DNA sequence changes that make us human more

Oldest hominin DNA sequenced

Max Planck researchers sequence the mitochondrial genome of a 400,000-year-old hominin from Spain more

A relative from the Tianyuan Cave

Ancient DNA has revealed that humans living some 40,000 years ago in the area near Beijing were likely related to many present-day Asians and Native Americans more

An interview with Matthias Meyer from the Max Planck Institut of Evolutionary Anthropology about the new analyses of the Denisova genome more

Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, has completed the genome sequence of a Denisovan, a representative of an Asian group of extinct humans related to Neandertals. more

Migration: many roads lead to Asia

Contrary to what was previously assumed, modern humans may have populated Asia in more than one migration wave more

Neither Neandertal nor modern human

Genome of extinct Siberian hominin sheds new light on modern human origins more

The mysterious hominids from the Denisova Cave

Bence Viola from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is on the trail of a new type of hominid in the Altai Mountains more

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