We have copied the lead in part of a dna scientists report on the newly discovered branch of extinct humans below. If you want to read the whole story go to http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/30/genome-mysterious-extinct-human-completed-scientists-say/ he genome of a recently discovered branch of extinct humans known as the Denisovans that once interbred with us has been sequenced, scientists said Thursday. Genetic analysis of the fossil revealed it apparently belonged to a little girl with dark skin, brown hair and brown eyes, researchers said. All in all, the scientists discovered about 100,000 recent changes in our genome that occurred after the split from the Denisovans. A number of these changes influence genes linked with brain function and nervous system development, leading to speculation that we may think differently from the Denisovans. Other changes are linked with the skin, eyes and teeth. Summary Archaic humans species known as Denisovans were closely related to Neandertals and modern humans. Evidence of group only came to light in 2010 with discovery of a piece of a finger bone and two molars at Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. Despite scarce evidence, scientists have completed an extremely thorough genome sequence, similar in quality to what researchers can obtain for the modern human genome. The precise age of the Denisovan material remains uncertain — it's anywhere from 30,000 to 80,000 years old. "This research will help [in] determining how it was that modern human populations came to expand dramatically in size as well as cultural complexity, while archaic humans eventually dwindled in numbers and became physically extinct," said researcher Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Future research may turn up other groups of extinct humans in Asia "in addition to Neanderthals and Denisovans," Pääbo told LiveScience. Although our species comprises the only humans left alive, our planet was once home to a variety of other human species. The Neanderthals were apparently our closest relatives, and the last of the other human lineages to vanish. However, scientists recently revealed another group of extinct humans once lived at the same time as ours. DNA from fossils unearthed in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia in 2008 revealed a lineage unlike us and closely related to Neanderthals. The precise age of the Denisovan material remains uncertain — anywhere from 30,000 to 80,000 years of age. "The Denisovan genome is particularly close to my heart, because it was the first time that a new group of extinct humans was discovered and defined just from DNA sequence evidence and not from the morphology of bones," Pääbo said. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/30/genome-mysterious-extinct-human-completed-scientists-say/#ixzz253XzDUr3