Pic. 1: A surge in scientific methods over the last 20 years, in fields as diverse as chemistry, physics, artificial intelligence and even medical technology, has revolutionised archaeological research. It is possible to extract DNA from tiny fragments and sequence them, to precisely date human fossil remains and to extract a multitude of information about past diets and lifeways.
Pic. A surge in scientific methods over the last 20 years, in fields as diverse as chemistry, physics, artificial intelligence and even medical technology, has revolutionised archaeological research. It is possible to extract DNA from tiny fragments and sequence them, to precisely date human fossil remains and to extract a multitude of information about past diets and lifeways. (©feelimage - matern) Research at the University of Vienna could solve mystery of human evolution Using the latest scientific methods, Tom Higham and Katerina Douka from the University of Vienna want to solve a great mystery of human evolution: Why are we the only humans left? Higham and Douka were the first ones to find a first-generation offspring of two different types of human. They continuously publish new results in high impact journals, most recently in Science Advances. Our ancient cousins are more present in modern human DNA than we thought: Modern humans possess a small proportion of genes from archaic groups like Neanderthals. Every person having a European or Asian background has an average of two percent of Neanderthal DNA in their blood.
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