New Kind of Human Discovered?

A 40,000-year-old finger fragment has tipped scientists off to a possible new race of humans who lived in the Denisova caves of Siberia. The fingertip, from a juvenile female, was discovered in 2008, and a new study in Nature concluded that the creature shared a common ancestor with both Neanderthals and modern humans. The Denisovan humans have similar DNA as Neanderthals, which suggests a close evolutionary relationship. The new study shows that modern Melanesians—inhabitants of islands near Australia—share about 4 to 6 percent of their genomes with the newly discovered Denosivan species.