Human Evolution Orthodoxy
The genomic revolution is an increasingly challenging, long-standing human evolution orthodoxy. An international team of geneticists headed by Matthias Meyer (pictured right below) of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany reported earlier this month in the journal Nature. The team studied the mtDNA from 28 fossilized hominins estimated to be 400,000 years of age from the Sima de Los Huesos cave in the Alapuera Mountain (pictured left) range of northern Spain.
Meyer’s team, which included legendary Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo, analyzed the genetics of these fossils collected during the 1970s. The study report, entitled “A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de Los Huesos,” concluded, unexpectedly, the fossils were genetically similar to the Denisovans, even though morphologically resemble Neanderthals. Sima de los Huesos means “Pit of the Bones.”