A 40,000-year-old child’s pinky bone found in a Siberian cave probably belonged to a previously unknown human species living near modern humans of the era, a gene study reports today.

In the Nature journal study, the pinky bone discovered in the Denisova cave archaeological site in southern Siberia yielded mitochondrial DNA – maternal genes inherited outside of the ones found in cell’s chromosomes – unrelated to either humans or their extinct Neanderthal cousins. The bone dates to a time when all three species apparently lived within 60 miles of each other in the Altai Mountain’s steppes.

Full Story Via USA Today

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