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)
================================================================
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)
=============================================================
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.
I think they proved the reactors work when they killed a lot of stuff.
But Carbon 14 dating might not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Some Creation Scientists took fossils that were supposed to be millions of years old and carbon dated them. They should have shown almost no Carbon 14. Instead they showed lots of Carbon 14.
I don’t know, but evolutionists claim that the Oldawan people had tools 2.3 million years ago. If you think I scoff at 100,000 years, you can imagine how bowled over with laughter I am at tool bearing man 2.3 million years ago.
Evolutionist’s response to that is to say, the Carbon 14 they detected was background level and was leached into the ancient fossils by ground water.
Which causes me to ask, if it can leach in, can it not leach out? And if there was a flood, or ground water over a couple of hundred to thousands of years and Carbon 14 is leachable, is it reliable at all?
Dang, got the response out of order. Should read like this.
I think they proved the reactors work when they killed a lot of stuff.
But Carbon 14 dating might not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Some Creation Scientists took fossils that were supposed to be millions of years old and carbon dated them. They should have shown almost no Carbon 14. Instead they showed lots of Carbon 14.
Evolutionist’s response to that is to say, the Carbon 14 they detected was background level and was leached into the ancient fossils by ground water.
Which causes me to ask, if it can leach in, can it not leach out? And if there was a flood, or ground water over a couple of hundred to thousands of years and Carbon 14 is leachable, is it reliable at all?
I don’t know, but evolutionists claim that the Oldawan people had tools 2.3 million years ago. If you think I scoff at 100,000 years, you can imagine how bowled over with laughter I am at tool bearing man 2.3 million years ago.
Yeah, but according to evolutionists, we had tools 2.3 million years ago.
So we not only were making tools, but we were smart enough to make tools. And we couldn’t figure out now to protect ourselves from wolves and bears?
I was wondering when that pic would make an appearance...
Nope, ain't going there.
Old news. I hit that 100,000 years ago.
Beer eyes. All that remains is determining the date of the inception of brewing.
excellent chart, tks for posting.
Exactly.
That encoding persists today as exemplified by Je$$e Jaxson and Al $harkton ?
Does have nice eyes.
What I don’t get is, if humans suddenly evolved into modern homosapiens 100,000 years ago or so, shouldn’t we have evolved beyond that now? Shouldn’t we all be X-men by now? Evolutionists never seem to address this problem, the idea that we have stopped evolving.
We are still ‘evolving’.....................
She doesn’t look a day over 86,000
with make up and without
(Or as my Mom or my Aunt used to say before going anywhere... wait and let me put my face on)
I guess the humans 2.3 million years ago didn’t have mitochondria. Maybe they had pre-mitochondria.
*** “Old news. I hit that 100,000 years ago” ***
We know (because we noticed the resemblance to Raquel Welch) who would doubt that you definitely hit that?
I do have a question ... that fur bra ... Was it Snap, Hook or a slipover?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
