- Scientist reconstructed the mitochondrial genome from two grams of bone
- They found early humans shared a common ancestor with the Denisovans
- This was suprising as early humans were thought to share a common ancestor with Neanderthals due to similar skeletal features
PUBLISHED: 13:09 EST, 4 December 2013 | UPDATED: 13:47 EST, 4 December 2013
The world’s oldest human DNA has been recovered from the thigh bone of an ancestor that walked the Earth 400,000 years ago.
It belonged to a hominin, or early human, known as Homo heidelbergensis and provides a new vital piece of the jigsaw in the story of evolution.
Using a technique for retrieving and sequencing highly degraded ancient DNA, scientists were able to reconstruct the almost complete mitochondrial (mt) genome from just two grams of bone powder.