Tooth gives up oldest human DNA
Scientists have recovered DNA from a Neanderthal that lived 100,000 years ago - the oldest human-type DNA so far.
It was extracted from the tooth of a Neanderthal child found in the Scladina cave in the Meuse Basin, Belgium.
The study, reported in Current Biology, suggests our distant cousins were more genetically diverse than once thought.
Their diversity had declined, perhaps because of climate change or disease, by the time early humans arrived in Europe about 35,000 years ago.
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It was extracted from the tooth of a Neanderthal child found in the Scladina cave in the Meuse Basin, Belgium.
The study, reported in Current Biology, suggests our distant cousins were more genetically diverse than once thought.
Their diversity had declined, perhaps because of climate change or disease, by the time early humans arrived in Europe about 35,000 years ago.