Female Denisovan Face Reconstructed via DNA

It was recently discovered that ancient humans called Denisovans once lived alongside Neanderthals. In 2012 a Denisovan genome was sequenced and it was found that their genes still live in the DNA of some Asians, Australians and Melanesians.

These early humans interbred with Neanderthals and other early humans. Thus their DNA lives on. Through DNA, researchers were able to predict  Denisovan appearance and now a young female Denisovan face has been reconstructed.

See her face, and read more at This is what mysterious ancient humans might have looked like By Ashley Strickland, CNN

Did Our Ancient Ancestors Mate With Many Other Species?

Did our ancestors enjoy a little hanky-panky with other distant and now extinct humans? Genome analysis suggests there was interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and an unknown archaic population.

We know from DNA testing that all modern humans whose ancestry originates outside of Africa share up to 4% of their genome with Neanderthals. Certain populations such as Papua New Guineans and Australian Aboriginals, share about 4% of their DNA with Denisovans. It was quite a revelation when scientists were able to prove that humans and Neanderthals inter-acted and mated. My DNA test kit reveals that I have 3% Neanderthal DNA.

Studies suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet-unknown human ancestor from Asia.

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