Asians and Native Americans share common ancestors
The results of a fossil DNA analysis released this week suggest that modern Asians and Native Americans are descendants of a group of people who lived in China 40,000 years ago.
To reach this conclusion, the research team, scientists from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said on January 22 that they analyzed the DNA of a leg bone found in Tianyuan Cave, China, in 2003.
Foot bone found in Tianyuan Cave, China, in 2003. (Source: MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology)
From here, scientists built a genetic profile of the "owner" of this bone fragment - an individual who lived at a very interesting time in modern human history.
The individual lived during a crucial evolutionary period when modern humans, who share some characteristics with Neanderthal forms, were gradually replacing Neanderthals and Denisovans, said lead researcher Svante Paabo. Genetic analysis of the ancient bone, however, revealed some genetic similarities between modern Asians and Native Americans.
Interestingly, previous genetic analyses have concluded that early modern humans in Beijing diverged genetically from the ancestors of modern Europeans.
Scientists have found fossils of Eurasian humans who lived 40,000 to 50,000 years ago that look similar to modern humans. However, the authors stressed that more research is needed to understand when and how modern humans spread across Europe and Asia./.
According to (TTXVN) - VT
