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See the face of your 100,000-year-old ancestor
The Jerusalem Post ^ | By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman September 19, 2019 20:32

Posted on 09/19/2019 10:42:50 AM PDT by Red Badger

Israeli team used DNA to design first Denosivan replica

Portrait of a female Denisovan teen. (photo credit: MAAYAN HAREL)

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Meet “Denise,” the first reconstructed anatomical profile of what, until now, were considered the mysterious Denisovans, a group of archaic humans.

She was revealed on Thursday by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The team who managed to recreate her profile say that long-term, their research shows possible strategies that could be taken for forensic applications.

Denisovans lived in Siberia and Eastern Asia before going extinct approximately 50,000 years ago, said Hebrew University researcher Prof. Liran Carmel, who led the study. But exactly what Denisovans might have looked like had previously been anyone’s guess. Since their original discovery in 2008, researchers had only three fossils to work with: a bone from the tip of “Denise’s” pinkie finger, a few teeth and a recently found lower jaw bone. The researchers were able to reconstruct the Denisovan profile over a three-year period by examining patterns of methylation in their ancient DNA.

3-D printed reconstruction of a female Denisovan (Credit: Maayan Harel)3-D printed reconstruction of a female Denisovan (Credit: Maayan Harel)

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DNA methylation is a process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule, thereby changing the activity of a segment of DNA. “Methylation provides ample information on gene transcription,” Carmel explained.

By studying Denisovan DNA methylation maps and comparing them to those of Neanderthals – another group of archaic humans who went extinct in Europe about 40,000 years ago – as well as ancient Homo sapiens, the team was able to understand what the differences might mean to Denisovan anatomical features, based on what is known about human disorders in which those genes lose their function.

“We got a prediction as to what skeletal parts are affected by differential regulation of each gene and in what direction that skeletal part would change – for example, a longer or shorter femur bone,” said Dr. David Gokhman, now a postdoc at Stanford, who also worked on the project.

Carmel said it is very difficult to get an anatomical profile from a DNA sequence: at most, scientists and forensics teams can tell basic details, such as whether the person has dark hair or skin. DNA methylation, however, allows researchers to make much more detailed anatomical predictions.

The team was able to prove about 85% accuracy of their model by using the same methodology to create anatomical models of Neanderthals and chimpanzees, which have known anatomical profiles.

“One of the most exciting moments happened a few weeks after we sent our paper to peer-review,” Carmel said. “Scientists had discovered a Denisovan jawbone. We quickly compared this bone to our predictions and found that it matched perfectly. Without even planning it, we received independent confirmation of our ability to reconstruct whole anatomical profiles using DNA that we extracted from a single fingertip.”

The researchers found that Denisovans have striking similar methylation patterns to humans. They also found that there are 56 anatomical features in which Denisovans differ from modern humans and/or Neanderthals, 34 of them in the skull.

Past research done outside of Hebrew University showed that up to 6% of present-day Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians contain Denisovan DNA. Further, Denisovan DNA likely contributed to modern Tibetans’ ability to live in high altitudes and to Inuits’ ability to withstand freezing temperatures.

Although Carmel said that “using our method directly for forensic application is currently not possible,” because it is designed to study differences outside the variability of modern humans and police would need to find features within that variability, “DNA methylation may provide much information that could help the police,” with forensic data, according to Carmel.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; History; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: archaeology; denosivan; denosivans; genetics; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; history; paleontology
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1 posted on 09/19/2019 10:42:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: SunkenCiv

PinGGG!..........................


2 posted on 09/19/2019 10:43:11 AM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger

Looks like Chelsea!


3 posted on 09/19/2019 10:44:10 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Red Badger

Naaah, see her in Walmart all the time.


4 posted on 09/19/2019 10:45:45 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Red Badger

I had a blind date with her in 1982. I told her she looked a little older than she said she was.


5 posted on 09/19/2019 10:47:04 AM PDT by FatherofFive (Islam is EVIL and needs to be eradicated)
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To: Red Badger

I think its her time to leave Supreme Court.


6 posted on 09/19/2019 10:47:28 AM PDT by Bringbackthedraft
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To: Red Badger
Looks like the SQUAD member who married her brother, but she's not wearing the table cloth around her head.


7 posted on 09/19/2019 10:48:50 AM PDT by laweeks
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To: Red Badger

Look more like Aunt Helen.


8 posted on 09/19/2019 10:48:51 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Red Badger

She looks terrified.


9 posted on 09/19/2019 10:48:56 AM PDT by Mr. N. Wolfe
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To: Red Badger

I’d hit that.

She’s Hawt!


10 posted on 09/19/2019 10:49:10 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0ndRzaz2o)
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To: Red Badger
I don 't buy it. If man existed 100,000 years ago, he would have overpopulated the world and there would be massive evidence.

The following chart shows current day assumptions about human population. The chart is flawed in that it assumes 12,000 years instead of 6,000. And doesn't account for the flood 4,000 years ago that reduce the population to 8.


11 posted on 09/19/2019 10:50:30 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Red Badger

Probably just like the Neanderthals, we humans killed them off, except for the few young females we “adopted”.

Superior organizational skills by humans allowed us to mass greater numbers of, and better supplied warriors.

And we are encoded genetically to fear and dislike those not like us. That encoding persists today.


12 posted on 09/19/2019 10:50:45 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Red Badger

So now the cops can use DNA at a crime scene to get m image of why the perp looked like, maybe.


13 posted on 09/19/2019 10:51:42 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: Vendome; Lazamataz

We must wait for the expert’s opinion.....................


14 posted on 09/19/2019 10:54:09 AM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger

They look like cave democrats.


15 posted on 09/19/2019 10:54:09 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: DannyTN

that long ago, humans were prey to any number of predators and then there is disease and injury, starvation, death in childbirth, etc., etc.


16 posted on 09/19/2019 10:54:36 AM PDT by txnativegop (The political left, Mankinds intellectual hemlock)
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To: Red Badger

Kate Micucci?


17 posted on 09/19/2019 10:55:41 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Yeah, well, y'know that's just like, uh... your opinion, man.)
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To: Red Badger

They all look alike to me.


18 posted on 09/19/2019 10:58:59 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan (My tagline is in the shop.)
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To: Red Badger

Looks like a girl I knew in seventh grade.


19 posted on 09/19/2019 10:59:56 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: txnativegop

I’ll grant you that for the first 2000 years of man’s existence he was so violent to each other that he eventually caused his Creator to nearly wipe him out.

But 90,000 years to figure out how to protect from predators? Nah, not buying it.


20 posted on 09/19/2019 11:00:44 AM PDT by DannyTN
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