Human DNA From 400,000 Years Ago Found in Spain
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The oldest human DNA ever found, from a 400,000-year-old thigh bone in Spain, may lead scientists to revise mankind’s family tree.
The femur from Spain’s Sima de los Huesos, or “Pit of Bones,” yielded mitochondrial DNA that showed links between its owner and a group of ancestral humans called Denisovans, according to a study in the journal Nature. The femur bone previously had been thought to belong to the Neanderthals, while Denisovans had been found only in Siberia, about 4,000 miles east of the Spain site, the authors said.