Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered "hominin" group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history. In 2010, the first draft of the Neanderthal genome was published, and comparisons with modern human genomes revealed that Neanderthal and modern humans had interbred in the past. A few months later, analysis of a genome sequenced from a finger bone excavated in the Denisova cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia revealed that this bone fragment was from a newly discovered hominin group that we now call Denisovans, who also interbred with modern humans.
"This was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the last decade," said Dr. Linda Ongaro, Postdoctoral Research in Trinity College Dublin's School of Genetics and Microbiology, and first author of a fascinating new review article published in leading international journal Nature Genetics. "It's a common misconception that humans evolved suddenly and neatly from one common ancestor, but the more we learn the more we realise interbreeding with different hominins occurred and helped to shape the people we are today.
"Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only that finger bone, a jawbone, teeth, and skull fragments. But by leveraging the surviving Denisovan segments in Modern Human genomes scientists have uncovered evidence of at least thre.