DNA From Ancient Bones Reveal New Secrets

The archaeological community made a huge leap forward this year, 2014, in identifying the actual genetic make up of human beings in ancient eras. Earlier this year, two very important archaeological discoveries were made; one was finding the remains of a 45,000-year-old man from Siberia, and the other major find was the discovery of 36,000-year-old man from Russia.

The two remains were found just weeks apart and the data that these two archaeological finds revealed has been interlinked. DNA evidence from the Siberian Ust'-Ishim man revealed that he was most probably related to East Asians and ancient European hunter-gatherers. Whereas the remains from Russia named Kostenki showed data that supported that Kostenki was related to western Eurasians and ancient hunter-gatherers.

The DNA of both remains indicate the way in which ancient humans used to spread out from their original locations and migrate to other lands. The data may help aid researchers analyse when and how eastern and western Eurasians parted ways. In addition, researchers have been able to speculate that the evolution of mankind occurred through migration and continuous interbreeding.

Moreover, in a surprising turn of events, DNA evidence from these ancient remains revealed a link into interbreeding among early humans from the Stone Age and Neanderthals. Researchers were able to pinpoint a rough timeframe, around 50,000 -60,000 years when the interbreeding occurred between the two evolutionary species.

Scientists are still working on the DNA from these and other such remains to uncover more facts about life in ancient times. The scientific community is always hopeful of finding the next big thing in discovering the secret to human evolution. However, there seems to be more questions than answers available.