scientist have got their hands on some inherited information from an 800,000 - year - old antediluvian human species , the oldest genetical information ever recover from an ancestor on the human folk tree . The determination from the discipline are already helping the researcher put together pieces of the human story , such as how humanity gravel their “ good looks ” .
Reporting in the journalNaturetoday , researchers obtained their insight from an 800,000 - year - old tooth belong to a hominin species known asHomo antecessorfound in the Atapuerca Mountains of present - day Spain .
researcher typically apply ancient deoxyribonucleic acid analysis to take the genetic science of ancient humanity , brute , and other creatures from the distant past . However , this genetic material degrades over fourth dimension , mean it ’s often unimaginable to obtain any genetic information from long - nonextant species . So , for this unexampled field , the team used a technique known as mass spectrum analysis . Instead of gathering lineal inherited material , the researchers sequenced ancient protein from the dental enamel , provide them with insights into the factor that made up the ancient hominin ’s genetic code .
“ The edifice cube of proteins are amino acids . Those aminic acids are put together in a specific order , a ' successiveness ' , and that order is mostly determined by the DNA sequence of the cistron in our genomes , ” Frido Welker , study author and postdoctoral research colleague at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark , told IFLScience .
“ Protein raft spectroscopic analysis countenance us to ' say ' the order of the amino Lucy in the sky with diamonds of the proteins preserved in these ancient fossil , ” they add . “ We can then equate those ancient protein succession with the protein sequence of living organisms ( or extinct ones ) that either have their genome sequenced or for which proteomic data is also available . ”
Little is known aboutH. antecessor , and what we do know isfull of disagreementand controversy . The archaic human mintage was first reported in the journalSciencein 1997 , which described the species as an strange portmanteau of human being - like and primitive characteristic . Although much more anthropoid - same than more recent human ancestors , the mintage was said to have a surprisingly modern human - similar facial structure .
Scientists also do n’t know much aboutH. antecessors’relationship to other later hominin species . free-base on this new research , however , it suggest the species was close related tothe last common ancestorofHomo sapiens , Neanderthals , andDenisovans .
Given all that we know ( or can assume ) aboutH. antecessors , the new determination evoke our modern human features in reality have a much longer history in the hominin species . Welker explained : “ By providing a molecularly - decide approximation of whereHomo antecessoris rank in the human category , we now also know that the ‘ modern - corresponding ’ face ofH. antecessormust have arisen earlier in the human category than antecedently considered . "
