Hawks tente de dissiper une partie de la confusion : « I direct your attention to a new paper by Mattias Meyer and colleagues describing a mitochondrial DNA sequence from Sima de los Huesos, Spain (Meyer et al. 2013). It is super awesomely cool work, and I cant wait for the further development as they attempt to get more DNA sequence data from the Sima sample. The recovery of cave bear DNA earlier this year from Sima presaged the current paper, and it seems we are now in a time where we can expect more results from Middle Pleistocene human remains. Very, very good. Still, there seems to be a widespread confusion about the current result, which shows the Sima mtDNA sequence to be on the same clade as the mtDNA sequences from Denisova, Russia. I mean, take a look at the quotes from these news articles: In the New York Times story by Carl Zimmer (At 400,000 Years, Oldest Human DNA Yet Found Raises New Mysteries): Dr. Meyer is hopeful that he and his colleagues will be able to get more DNA from the Spanish fossil, as well as other fossils from the site, to help solve the puzzle they have now stumbled across. “It’s extremely hard to make sense of,” Dr. Meyer said. “We still are a bit lost here.” From Ewen Callaways Nature news article (Hominin DNA baffles experts): Even Pääbo admits that he was befuddled by his team’s latest discovery. “My hope is, of course, eventually we will not bring turmoil but clarity to this world,” he says. I sort of understand the confusion. »
Posted on: Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:23:33 +0000