Who's the New Guy? - Dirt 153

What this episode covers

Remember that time we did a whole series on the human family tree and then finished talking about evolution forever because we were all done? HA! OF COURSE WE AREN'T DONE! There have been some amazing new discoveries in the human fossil record since that series dropped, so we're here to update you on what our family shrubbery looks like now. We journey to Siberia, the Philippines, China, and other places, and our story gets a whole lot more complicated! We love to see it. Links * Human Evolution Interactive Timeline (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History) [https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-interactive-timeline] * Are Homo sapiens and Neanderthals the same species? (Stefan Milo, via YouTube) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfGBjJU-BiA] * Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) (National Human Genome Research Institute) [https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Polymerase-Chain-Reaction#:~:text=Polymerase%20chain%20reaction%20(PCR)%20is,used%20to%20amplify%20DNA%20sequences.&text=The%20temperature%20of%20the%20sample,in%20just%20a%20few%20hours] * First portrait of mysterious Denisovans drawn from DNA (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02820-0] * Biggest Denisovan fossil yet spills ancient human's secrets (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01395-0] * New clue to human evolution's biggest mystery emerges in Philippines (CNN) [https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/world/denisovan-dna-philippines-scn/index.html] * Indigenous Filipino Group Has Highest Known Denisovan Ancestry (The Scientist) [https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/indigenous-filipino-group-has-highest-known-denisovan-ancestry-69089] * Ancient tools and DNA discovered in a Tibetan cave shed unprecedented light on humans' most enigmatic ancestor, the Denisovans (Business Insider) [https://www.businessinsider.com/denisovan-dna-tibet-human-ancestors-high-altitudes-2020-12] * Denisovans: The ancient humans who share our ancestry (New Scientist) [https://www.newscientist.com/definition/denisovans/#ixzz75Pe1Nd2D] * Philippine Ayta possess the highest level of Denisovan ancestry in the world (Current Biology) [https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00977-5] * A new species of Homo from the Late Pleistocene of the Philippines (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1067-9] * Homo luzonensis: New human species found in Philippines (BBC News) [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873072] * New species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines (National Geographic) [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/new-species-ancient-human-discovered-luzon-philippines-homo-luzonensis] * Homo naledi (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History) [https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-naledi] * Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa (Evolutionary Biology) [https://elifesciences.org/articles/09560] * The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa (Evolutionary Biology) [https://elifesciences.org/articles/24231] * Homo naledi is only 250,000 years old – here's why that matters (New Scientist) [https://www.newscientist.com/article/2128834-homo-naledi-is-only-250000-years-old-heres-why-that-matters/#ixzz75PfMKvHW] * New type of ancient human discovered in Israel (BBC News) [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57586315#:~:text=The%20scientists%20have%20named%20the,of%20how%20the%20Neanderthals%20emerged]