29 March 2024 The Future is the Product of the Past

Earliest Modern Human Genome Identified

The fossilized skull of a woman in the Czech Republic provided the oldest modern human genome to date, which has been reconstructed to represent a population that arose before the ancestors of today’s Europeans and Asians split.

Ancient DNA from Neanderthals and early modern humans has recently shown that these groups likely interbred crossed somewhere in the Middle East after modern humans left Africa some 50,000 years ago. As a result, everyone outside of Africa carries 2% to 3% of Neanderthal DNA. In the modern human genome, these Neandertal DNA fragments become shorter and shorter with the passage of time, and their length can be used to estimate a person’s survival time. The archaeological data released last year further showed that modern humans already existed in Southeast Europe 47-43,000 years ago, but due to the lack of fairly complete human fossils and the lack of genomic DNA, people do not know who these early human colonists were. -Or their relationship with ancient and contemporary human groups.

In a new study published in “Nature Ecology and Evolution”, an international research team reported the oldest possibility to date to reconstruct the modern human genome. Researchers call it Zlatýkůň (the golden horse of the Czech Republic). It was the first female discovered in the Czech Republic. Its Neanderthal DNA fragments are longer than the 45,000-year-old Ust’-Ishim in Siberia, the oldest modern human genome to date. Analysis shows that she is part of a part of the population, and these populations were formed before the split between Europeans and Asians today.

A recent anthropological study based on the shape of the Zlatýkůň skull shows that the species is similar to people who lived in Europe before the last glacier peak at least 30,000 years ago, but radiocarbon dating has produced sporadic results, irregular of which 15,000 years ago. It wasn’t until Jaroslav Brůžek from the Faculty of Science, Prague and Petr Velemínský of Prague’s National Museum collaborated with the genetics laboratories of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History that a clearer picture came into view.

“We found evidence of cow DNA contamination in the analyzed bone, which suggests that a bovine-based glue used in the past to consolidate the skull was returning radiocarbon dates younger than the fossil’s true age,” says Cosimo Posth, co-lead author of the study. Post was formerly a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and is currently a Professor of Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics at the University of Tübingen.

Initial attempts to date Zlatý kůň based on the shape of her skull suggested she was at least 30,000 years old. Researchers now believe she lived more than 45,000 years ago.
Initial attempts to date Zlatý kůň based on the shape of her skull suggested she was at least 30,000 years old. Researchers now believe she lived more than 45,000 years ago. Photo: Martin Frouz

However, it was Neandertal DNA that led the team to reach the main conclusions about the age of the fossil. Zlatýkůň carries the same amount of Neandertal DNA in her genome as Ust Ishim or other modern humans outside of Africa, but the fragments of Neandertal descent are longer on average.

“The results of our DNA analysis show that Zlatý kůň lived closer in time to the admixture event with Neanderthals,” says Kay Prüfer, co-lead author of the study.

The scientists were able to estimate that Zlatý kůň lived approximately 2,000 years after the last admixture. Based on these findings, the team argues that Zlatý kůň represents the oldest human genome to date, roughly the same age as – if not a few hundred years older than – Ust’-Ishim.

“It is quite intriguing that the earliest modern humans in Europe ultimately didn’t succeed! Just as with Ust’-Ishim and the so far oldest European skull from Oase 1, Zlatý kůň shows no genetic continuity with modern humans that lived in Europe after 40,000 years ago,” says Johannes Krause, senior author of the study and director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

One possible explanation for the discontinuity is the Campanian Ignimbrite volcanic eruption roughly 39,000 years ago, which severely affected climate in the northern hemisphere and may have reduced the survival chances of Neanderthals and early modern humans in large parts of Ice Age Europe.

As advances in ancient DNA reveal more about the story of our species, future genetic studies of other early European individuals will help to reconstruct the history and decline of the first modern humans to expand out of Africa and into Eurasia before the formation of modern-day non-African populations.

Source: MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY

Related Articles

Construction Workers Discovered Ancient Sarcophagus in Turkey

2 March 2021

2 March 2021

On Monday, reports said that during excavations in the Seyitgazi region of Eskisehir Province in northwestern Turkey, municipal staff unexpectedly...

Archaeologists 3D map Red Lily Lagoon, the hidden Northern Territory landscape where first Australians lived more than 60,000 years ago

10 May 2023

10 May 2023

Archaeologists map Red Lily Lagoon, a hidden landscape in the Northern Territory where the first Australians lived more than 60,000...

2000-Year-Old Marvel: The Mystery of the Parthian Battery

1 March 2024

1 March 2024

The Parthian Battery is believed to be about 2000 years old (from the Parthian period, roughly 250 BCE to CE...

Underneath an Illegal Excavation House, a Subterranean City Is Revealed!

25 June 2021

25 June 2021

Upon the information that illegal excavations were carried out in a house in the İscehisar district of Afyonkarahisar in western...

Saxon ‘London’ was Bigger Than Previously Believed

23 February 2024

23 February 2024

Archaeologists digging at the northern end of Trafalgar Square found evidence that Saxon London’s center was bigger and extended further...

Zeus Temple’s entrance was found in western Turkey’s Aizanoi Ancient City

31 July 2021

31 July 2021

During recent digs, the monumental entrance gate of the Zeus Temple sanctuary in the ancient city of Aizanoi, located in...

First direct evidence of drug use as part of Bronze Age ritual ceremonies in Europe

6 April 2023

6 April 2023

An analysis of human hair strands recovered from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, reveals that ancient human civilizations used...

1,500-year-old Byzantine artifacts found under a peach orchard in Turkey’s Iznik

27 January 2023

27 January 2023

In the world-famous historical city of Iznik, which was the capital of four civilizations, a farmer found coins and historical...

Medieval Hub of Arts & Crafts Center discovered in Nola: The discovery could rewrite the history of early medieval Nola

23 August 2023

23 August 2023

On the outskirts of Nola, a district from the early Middle Ages has been discovered. According to the Soprintendenza Archeologia,...

Elamite clay tablet discovered 4500 years old, in southwest Iran

4 December 2021

4 December 2021

A clay tablet, estimated to be from the Elam period, about 4500 years old, was recently discovered in southwestern Iran....

Terracotta Figurines of the ancient cult of the goddess Cybele discovered in Pompeii Domus

26 December 2023

26 December 2023

Archaeologists unearthed 13 terracotta figurines during recent excavations in the Domus adjacent to the “House of Leda and the Swan”...

Meaning of Agora Gate Found in Turkey’s Ancient City of Aizanoi

8 June 2021

8 June 2021

The good news continues to come from the ancient city of Aizanoi, located in Çavdarhisar district, 50 km from Kütahya....

Sheikh Sultan Opened ‘Tales from the East’ Exhibition

28 April 2021

28 April 2021

The opening of the ‘Tales from the East’ exhibition organized by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) was held with the...

1,800-year-old Bronze military medal with Medusa head found in southeastern Turkey

5 October 2022

5 October 2022

A military medal believed to be almost 1,800 years old has been found by archaeologists in Turkey. The discovery was...

How Knossos Palace Looked in Its Glorious Days

9 May 2021

9 May 2021

Knossos Palace is a famous architectural structure of ancient Knossos, which was the capital of the Minoan Civilization. Archaeologist Arthur...