Scientists have recently discovered the tip of a girl's 40,000 year old pinky finger in a Siberian cave. Using advanced technology, they found out that modern humans have encountered at least two groups of ancient humans. They encountered the Neanderthals and the Denisovans The Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia and the Denisovans lived in Asia. Both groups disappeared around the same time which was 30,000 years ago. Scientists have compared different genomes and have come to the conclusion that people outside of Africa have an average of 2.5% Neanderthal DNA, and people from parts of Oceania have about 5% Denisovan DNA. This is the result of modern humans interbreeding with the Neanderthals and the Denisovans. Scientists are trying to figure out where the mating took place, and are also trying to find out more information about the Denisovans.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=health
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