Science Alert: Mom was a Neanderthal. Dad was something else entirely. Meet the strangest hybrid in human history.

Fragments of DNA in a 50,000-year-old finger bone have revealed a fascinating new character in the story of our evolution: the first-known offspring of parents from two different branches of the human family tree. The bone belonged to a 13-year-old girl whose mother was a Neanderthal — one of the ancient people who inhabited Europe and Asia between 450,000 and 40,000 years ago. But the girl's father was a Denisovan — a mysterious offshoot of the genus Homo known only from a few bits of bone and the faint signatures that still linger in the genomes of modern humans. The report in the journal Nature adds to a growing body of evidence that ancient hominids — including some of our own direct ancestors — interacted and interbred repeatedly over the course of evolutionary history.

Democracy Dies in Darkness     Science Alert Aug 22, 1:01 PM     Mom was a Neanderthal. Dad was something else entirely. Meet the strangest hybrid in human history. Fragments of DNA in a 50,000-year-old finger bone have revealed a fascinating new character in the story of our evolution: the first-known offspring of parents from two different branches of the human family tree. The bone belonged to a 13-year-old girl whose mother was a Neanderthal — one of the ancient people who inhabited Europe and Asia between 450,000 and 40,000 years ago. But the girl's father was a Denisovan — a mysterious offshoot of the genus Homo known only from a few bits of bone and the faint signatures that still linger in the genomes of modern humans. The report in the journal Nature adds to a growing body of evidence that ancient hominids — including some of our own direct ancestors — interacted and interbred repeatedly over the course of evolutionary history. Read more » Advertisement You received this email because you signed up for news alerts from The Washington Post. Manage my newsletters and alerts | Unsubscribe Privacy Policy | Help ©2018 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071