Follow Spanish Immigration and Spanish Technology: Researchers have decoded DNA extracted from a femur of prehistoric humans dating back approximately 400,000 years, which will advance the study of human evolutionary genetics by about 200,000 years.
According to reports, this discovery has been published in the scientific journal Nature. The report states that this femur was sourced from northern Spain. It shows a connection between this group of humans and another group known as Denisovans, based on mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA). Prior to this, the academic community believed that this femur belonged to Neanderthals, while Denisovans inhabited Siberia, 4,000 miles (approximately 6,437 kilometers) away from Spain. However, this discovery indicates that Denisovans may have split from Neanderthals between 170,000 and 700,000 years ago.
Researchers previously believed that these two groups of humans separated from the ancestors of modern humans in Africa around 300,000 years ago. Denisovans migrated eastward, while Neanderthals settled in Europe.
