Scientists rebuild genome of girl from 50,000 years ago
Scientists reconstitute Denisovan's entire genetic make-up using finger bone with high accuracy
Scientists have rebuilt the entire genetic make-up of a girl who lived and died in a Siberian cave more than 50,000 years ago.
The young woman belonged to a long extinct group of humans called Denisovans, their existence known only from meagre fossil remains uncovered at the Denisova cave in the Altai mountains in 2008.
They are thought to have occupied much of Asia tens of thousands of years ago.
Previous tests on the remains found they were more closely related to Neanderthals than modern humans.
Writing in the journal Science, researchers in America and Germany describe how they sequenced the girl's entire genome with an accuracy that was once considered impossible with such ancient specimens.
The final sequence matched the quality of modern genetic tests on living people.