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DNA researchers at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany have sequenced the oldest mitochondrial genome sequence of a 400,000-year-old representative. This representative is of the genus Homo from Sima de los Huesos which is a unique cave site in Northern Spain.

They also found that it was related to the mitochondrial genome of Denisovans who are extinct relatives of Neandertals in Asia.

Sima de los Huesos (SH), the “bone pit” consisted around 28 skeletons and yields world’s largest assemble of Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils.

Matthias Meyer along with his team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have worked on techniques that help them in retrieving and sequencing highly degraded ancient DNA.

Researchers sampled two grams of bone powder from a hominin thigh bone from the cave and they extracted its DNA. Once the extraction was done they sequenced the genome of the mitochondria (also known as mtDNA). It is a small part of the genome that is passed down along the maternal line and also occurs in many copies per cell. Subsequently the compared this with Neandertals, Denisovans, present-day humans and apes as well.

“Our results show that we can now study DNA from human ancestors that are hundreds of thousands of years old. This opens prospects to study the genes of the ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans. It is tremendously exciting” said Svante Pääbo, director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in a press release.

“This unexpected result points to a complex pattern of evolution in the origin of Neandertals and modern humans. I hope that more research will help clarify the genetic relationships of the hominins from Sima de los Huesos to Neandertals and Denisovans” added Juan-Luis Arsuaga, director of the Center for Research on Human Evolution and Behaviour.

The developments of the research is published in Nature.