The Genome of a Human From an Unknown Population Has Been Recovered From Cave Dirt

[Warpy]

A cup of mud that has been buried beneath the floor of a cave for millennia has just yielded up the genome of an ancient human.

Analysis reveals traces of a woman who lived 25,000 years ago, before the last Ice Age; and, although we don't know much about her, she represents a significant scientific achievement: the feasibility of identifying ancient human populations even when there are no bones to recover
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First, the woman. Only a tiny fraction of her genome was recovered, but from that, the researchers were able to infer that she was a member of a previously unknown group of modern humans. That group is now extinct, but it contributed to present day populations in Europe and Asia, as discovered when the ancient genome was compared to current human genomes.

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-human-genome-has-been-recovered-from-cave-dirt

I knew they'd found ancient DNA fragments in habitation layers. Sequencing them this far is a massive achievement.

[at140]

1. Just 25,000 years and already extinct WOW

What never ceases to amaze me is how short human civilization is in context of earth's estimated age of 5 Billion years. I feel so lucky to be living now than just 200 years ago when pain killers and safe surgical procedures were not around.

[Warpy]

2. The article said she was a modern human

so the extinct part was that particular mitochondrial line.

A lot of hose went extinct 700 years ago during the Black Death.

[Random Boomer]

3. I hadn't thought of that

Thanks for pointing out yet another consequence of the Black Death pandemic. That one had never occurred to me.

[Warpy]

4. Y-haplogroups (male lineages) were also lost then

It was a near extinction event, and it won't be the last one.