Scientists have discovered solid proof that ancient humans weren’t as separate as we once thought—they mixed and mingled! By studying DNA from fossils, researchers found that our ancestors, Homo sapiens, had kids with Neanderthals and another group called Denisovans. This mixing left genetic traces that still exist in modern humans today, like certain immune system traits. Some people even carry DNA linked to Denisovans that helps them adapt to high altitudes. It’s like a prehistoric family reunion, showing how interconnected early human groups were. These findings are rewriting the story of human evolution, proving it wasn’t a straight line but more like a web of relationships! Credit:
Disappearing Ice: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4616
Unknown Author / Reddit
Olduvai Chopper: By Archaeomoonwalker, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18927685
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Tautavel UK 2: By Gerbil, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4533359
Homo sapiens sapiens: By Rept0n1x, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29041409
Denisova cave 03: By Yuriy59, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147164762
Denisova Molar: By Thilo Parg/ Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41805108
Olduvai stone chopping tool: By Ali A. Fazal, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15602532
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Homo erectus lantianensis: By Bjoertvedt, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62286355
homo erectus: By Jerónimo Roure Pérez, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76793319
Australopithecus sediba: By Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94895238
Primate skull 03: By Museum of Veterinary Anatomy FMVZ USP, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67133236
Paranthropus boisei: By Jonathan Chen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152149921
Australopithecus afarensis: By Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94895236
Entrance to Denisova Cave: By Демин Алексей Барнаул, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48890364
Denisova-111: By Buckley, Michael; Derevianko, Anatoly; Shunkov, Michael; Procopio, Noemi; Comeskey, Daniel; Fiona Brock; Douka, Katerina; Meyer, Matthias et al., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76216365
Neolithic, Lithic implement: By The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55713497
Homo habilis: By Cicero Moraes, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25058163
Cráneo del Homo habilis: By José Luis Filpo Cabana, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68878100
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
Lucy Skeleton: By Andrew - https://flic.kr/p/4dpKeF, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3792582
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
TM 1517: By Don Hitchcock - https://www.donsmaps.com/robustus.html, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93524552
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Disappearing Ice: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4616
Unknown Author / Reddit
Olduvai Chopper: By Archaeomoonwalker, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18927685
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Tautavel UK 2: By Gerbil, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4533359
Homo sapiens sapiens: By Rept0n1x, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29041409
Denisova cave 03: By Yuriy59, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147164762
Denisova Molar: By Thilo Parg/ Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41805108
Olduvai stone chopping tool: By Ali A. Fazal, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15602532
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Homo erectus lantianensis: By Bjoertvedt, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62286355
homo erectus: By Jerónimo Roure Pérez, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76793319
Australopithecus sediba: By Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94895238
Primate skull 03: By Museum of Veterinary Anatomy FMVZ USP, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67133236
Paranthropus boisei: By Jonathan Chen, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152149921
Australopithecus afarensis: By Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94895236
Entrance to Denisova Cave: By Демин Алексей Барнаул, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48890364
Denisova-111: By Buckley, Michael; Derevianko, Anatoly; Shunkov, Michael; Procopio, Noemi; Comeskey, Daniel; Fiona Brock; Douka, Katerina; Meyer, Matthias et al., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76216365
Neolithic, Lithic implement: By The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55713497
Homo habilis: By Cicero Moraes, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25058163
Cráneo del Homo habilis: By José Luis Filpo Cabana, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68878100
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
Lucy Skeleton: By Andrew - https://flic.kr/p/4dpKeF, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3792582
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
TM 1517: By Don Hitchcock - https://www.donsmaps.com/robustus.html, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93524552
Animation is created by Bright Side.
#brightside
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FunTranscript
00:00Whoa, there could have been more human species throughout history than we used to think.
00:07In one place in East China, Hualongdong, scientists found the remains of a human who lived around
00:13300,000 years ago.
00:16They found a jaw bone and parts of the skull.
00:20They carefully studied these bones to compare them with the bones of other ancient and modern
00:25humans.
00:26The remains themselves weren't that unusual.
00:30We know our human family is really diverse and has been around for millions of years.
00:36You know our ancient relative called Australopithecus, right?
00:40These fellows lived in different parts of Africa and they were known for walking on
00:44two legs, just like modern humans.
00:47But their brains and some other parts of their bodies made them more similar to apes.
00:53Their teeth are a good example of how they were like a mix of apes and modern humans.
00:59Their canine teeth were smaller than those of apes, but their back teeth were still larger
01:03than ours.
01:06There were different types of them.
01:07You can recognize some Paranthropus because of their big jaws and teeth.
01:13One of the most famous fossils of Australopithecus is Lucy, a lady that's about 3.2 million
01:20years old.
01:21She was found in Ethiopia.
01:24So we know that our family got pretty big from that point, or probably even before it.
01:30But it's always great to welcome some new members, which seemed to be the case with
01:33this new discovery.
01:36Some parts of these bones look similar to the bones of ancient humans, while other parts
01:41look more like the bones modern humans have.
01:44For example, the person whose bones they found didn't have a real chin.
01:48That means we can't put it in any of the groups we know of, like Neanderthals, or maybe
01:54even Homo sapiens.
01:56So might we be missing a branch from the human family tree, or an important step in our evolution?
02:04What we're looking at here could be some mix between the creatures that became modern humans
02:08like us, and the ones that turned into what we today know as Denisovans.
02:14It takes time to figure it all out though.
02:17We hadn't known much about Denisovans either, until we found some of their bones in a cave
02:22in the mountains.
02:24These bones are really rare, and we only had a few pieces to analyze.
02:28But their genes told us a lot more about their past than their fossils.
02:34Different kinds of humans lived on this planet, but through time, they spread around.
02:39One group started living in Africa, those are our kind, Homo sapiens.
02:44Another group went to Europe, that's how we got Neanderthals.
02:48But some of these ancient human groups moved all the way to Asia.
02:52That's where we can trace a new interesting kind, Denisovans.
02:57It seems they're cousins to both modern humans and Neanderthals.
03:01The three species actually shared a common ancestor about 765,000 years ago.
03:08It's still not clear why Neanderthals and Denisovans took different paths, but one theory
03:12says that it was mostly because the Arctic ice sheet expanded southward all the way to
03:17the Black Sea, cutting off Europe from Asia.
03:20Life, or better yet, the planet, kept them separated for a very long time.
03:26Plus, they kept changing places where they lived all the time, always looking for something
03:31better, like every other human species before and after them.
03:36But this didn't last forever.
03:39Scientists found genes from two groups of Denisovans, one in mainland Asia and the other
03:44in a place called Melanesia.
03:46So not only did they have different groups within their populations, but it also seems
03:51that after thousands and thousands of years of developing independently, the members of
03:56these three populations, Neanderthal, Denisovans, and modern humans, somehow met again and spread
04:04all across the land.
04:065% of the Denisovan genome lives on, not in the area where scientists found their bones,
04:11but in people that live thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia, for instance, in Papua
04:16New Guinea.
04:18But scientists believed that the cave where they found the remains of Denisovans might
04:22be as far north as they had lived.
04:25It would have been way too cold for them to survive if they had gone further north.
04:30From there, they traveled as far south as Indonesia.
04:33This was possible because, during their time, sea levels were lower than today, so Indonesia
04:40was connected to mainland Asia.
04:42But they probably didn't make it to Australia since it was still separated by water.
04:48These three groups mixed together too.
04:51Scientists have found a bone of a girl who had a Neanderthal mom and a Denisovan dad.
04:56It's the only first-generation hybrid human we've discovered.
05:00She even got a cool nickname, Denny.
05:04One of the mysteries about Denisovans is how they disappeared.
05:08Maybe they mixed so much with other humans that they just blended in.
05:12Or it's possible that modern humans' ancestors were stronger, had better tools, or even brought
05:17some diseases that didn't affect them, but the effect Denisovans.
05:22Climate and where they lived might have also played a role.
05:26Denisovans lived in a wide range of environments, from cold parts of Asia to tropical Indonesia.
05:33Climate changes and the challenges of different habitats might have been really difficult
05:37to survive.
05:39But it's hard to draw strict lines in our family tree.
05:42We're still relatively new at learning about it anyway.
05:45Who knows how many new members we are about to discover.
05:50Half a century ago, a team of scientists had an idea that a collection of fossils they
05:55found at the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania were actually the remains of some new human
06:00species.
06:01Yup, that was the time when we welcomed Homo habilis into the family.
06:06It was a big discovery at that time since people mostly believed that the story of our
06:11evolution had been really simple.
06:13First, there were Australopiths that looked like apes.
06:17After them, there was Homo erectus, the upright man.
06:22They most likely lived in Africa around 2 million years ago, but also expanded really
06:27quickly across Eurasia.
06:29It was the first human species that we know about to have traveled such long distances
06:33to find a better place for life.
06:37They looked and behaved like humans.
06:39Plus, they were probably the first of our ancient ancestors who learned how to deal
06:43with fire.
06:44Maybe they were the first to cook food as well.
06:47And that's what we're definitely thankful for.
06:50Eating food was an innovation that made the human diet more nutritive, and we could grow
06:55bigger and smarter brains.
06:58So yeah, Homo habilis made things more… complicated.
07:03They could walk on two legs, but they could also be better at climbing trees than walking
07:07on the ground like us.
07:09Plus, their brains were smaller than what a human should probably have.
07:15At first, it seemed these fossils could be from a completely different side of the family,
07:19related to other creatures, Australopithecus africanus, that looked like apes.
07:25But more and more digging showed that even though its jaws and teeth were similar, Homo
07:29habilis was still bigger and a bit different.
07:33The name means handyman, because they were probably able to make and use simple tools.
07:40Searching for more fossils in Africa wasn't easy because a team of researchers had to
07:45deal with wild animals and tough conditions all the time.
07:49But eventually, they managed to find some teeth and a strange skull that was, again,
07:54something different from the ancestors we knew about.
07:58The teeth were really big, so this new fella got the nickname of Nutcracker Man.
08:04For a long time, everyone believed this kind had evolved to eat hard foods.
08:10But the fossil teeth didn't show much damage, so they might have been eating food that was
08:14softer than we thought.
08:16This finding might help us understand how our teeth have been evolving through time,
08:21too.
08:22And right there, in the same layers of soil, where Nutcracker Man was lying, they found
08:28ancient stone tools.
08:30At first they thought those had belonged to Nutcracker, but as they kept digging, they
08:35found more fossils that didn't match Nutcracker Man.
08:38It means that someone else must be the real toolmaker.
08:42But that's another story for another time.
08:46That's it for today!
08:47So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:51friends!
08:52Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!