It seems that some people contain a small amount of Neanderthal DNA. Pacific Island dwellers have Denisovans DNA while many others have other genes. Dr. Joshua Akey finds the area fascinating and accepts that it is going to be a hard journey to determine the extent of the differences between Neanderthals, Denisovans, and humans.
There is not a great deal of information held on the DNA of Denisovans, and there has only been knowledge of their existence for the last ten years. Part of the bone from a finger was found in Northern Siberian cave and as a result of the analysis carried out it was discovered that there are only a few people who have more than a slight amount of their DNA connected.
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As Oceania and Siberia are a great distance apart, it is wondered how there has been a connection with humans. There has been debate surrounding it according to Dr. Akey when he was speaking to BBC News. It is suspected that there was a meeting in South East Asia, and then there was movement and settlement on the islands that are north of Australia. This is in contrast with humans and Neanderthals who often met across Eurasia, and their DNA lives on in the latest generations.
Non-Africans carry up to 4% of genomes from Neanderthals according to research from Svante Paabo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. According to Benjamin Vernot from the University of Washington Denisovans and Neanderthals travelled and we can now discover where they went.
