Piecing in the puzzles of human evolution

December 19, 2013

Neandertals, Denisovans, modern humans: who descended from whom? What researchers have discovered so far - a chronology of the key research results

High-quality Neandertal genome provides novel insights into human origins
Max Planck researchers describe Denisovan genome, illuminating the relationships between Denisovans and present-day humans
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.
Contrary to what was previously assumed, modern humans may have populated Asia in more than one migration wave
Genome of extinct Siberian hominin sheds new light on modern human origins
Ten years after analyzing the human genome scientists have unravelled the DNA of the Neanderthals. The result: Homo sapiens and Neanderthals intermingled. Thus, there is a bit of Neanderthal in most of us.
Max Planck researchers in Leipzig decode one million base pairs of the Neandertal genome
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and 454 Life Sciences Corporation, in Branford, Connecticut, have announced an ambitious plan to complete a first draft of the Neandertal genome within the next two years. 

Each of us carries up to four percent of Neandertal genes. Researchers working with Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig worked on decoding the Neandertal genome for 20 years and compared it with the Homo sapiens genome.

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