Tangled Roots: Mingling among Stone Age peoples muddies humans' evolutionary story

Author(s): Bruce Bower

Source: Science News, Vol. 182, No. 4 (AUGUST 25, 2012), pp. 22-26
Published by: Society for Science & the Public
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FEATURE I TANGLED

Tangled

Roots

Mingling among
Stone Age peoples
muddies humans'

evolutionary story
By Bruce Bower
'
ancientfinger bonerecently
landeda geneticsuckerpunch
on scientistsstudying human
An evolution.DNAextracted from
thistinyfossil,unearthedin Siberia's
DenisovaCave,unveileda humanlike
populationthatinterbred withpeople
in East Asia at least44,000 yearsago.
Denisovanssuppliednearly5 percent
ofthegenesofnativegroupsnowliving
inAustralia, NewGuineaandonseveral
nearby islands.
That molecularshockerfolloweda
revelationthatthegeneticinstruction
booksofpeople fromAustraliato the
Americascontaina roughly 2.5percent
contribution fromNeandertais, modern
humans'evolutionary cousinsthatdied
outaround30,000yearsago.Pullingthe
DNA shadesup on ancienthumandal-
liances withNeandertaisand closely
relatedDenisovanshassparkeda scien-
tificconsensusthatmembers ofmobile
humangroupsinterbredwithclosely
✓ relatedpopulations intheHomogenus
during the Stone Age.
' "The question is no longer
'Whendid ancientpopulations
- usuellas Neandertais go extinct?'
but'Whathappened tothosepop-
s
A ulationsandto modernhumans O 0
" (Ó
CL
as a resultofinterbreeding?* says lil
ce
anthropologist JohnHawksofthe è
University ofWisconsin-Madison. 1 S
LU
of
Clearsigns interbreeding have left O
O
- archaeologists and other studentsof the ìce
StoneAgescrambling torevisitexisting Ih

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 ideasaboutHomosapiens' evolutionary ancestorto leaveAfrica, surviveduntil smallnumberofmothers luckyenough
past. A dominant theoryholding that perhaps 200,000 years ago and may tohavehada fertile chainoffemaleoff-
humansevolvedin Africaand lefton haveevolvedintosmall-bodiedHomo springup to thepresentlivedinAfrica
neatone-way routestoAsiaandEurope floresiensis, orhobbits,inIndonesia. 200,000 years ago. These ancient
hastobe revised.Instead,theseancient An H erectusdescendant,Homo ladiesreceivedthecollectivenickname
peoplemusthavefollowed a tangled web heidelbergensis,originatedat least Mitochondrial Eve.
ofpathstaking themtoothercontinents 600,000 years ago - possibly in Reports in the mid-1990s thatNean-
and sometimesreversing course.Dur- Africa-and spreadacrossthatconti- dertalmitochondrial DNAmarkedly dif-
ingthese travels,humans encountered nent, southern Europe and southern fersfrom that ofhumans were taken by
Neandertais, Denisovansandprobably Asia. Between300,000 and 400,000 out-of-Africa proponents as further
evi-
otherhumanlike populations thatwere yearsago,H. heidelbergensis evolved denceagainstStoneAgeinterbreeding.
alreadytraipsing interconnected ave- into Homo -
neanderthalensis Neander- But investigators now realize that
nuesthrough AsiaandEurope. tais- inWestAsia.By130,000yearsago, fast-evolving changesin thisbrandof
Withthisnewpicture, twounderdog H heidelbergensis inAfricahadbecome humanDNA could have erased signs
modelsofhumanhistory havegotten new H sapiens,thehumanswhosedescen- ofinterbreeding. EvidencefromDNA
life.Bothfavorpopulation intersections dantsnowenveloptheglobe. in cell nuclei,whichis inheritedfrom
duringextensive travelsacrossancient Thentheevolutionary hammercame both parents and evolves relatively
landscapes.Butonemaintains thatmov- down. Beetle-browed, slope-faced slowly, suggests up to4 percentofDNA
ingpopulationswereseparatespecies, Neandertaisbitthedustbecausethey in modern Asians and Europeanswas
whilea secondregards Neandertais and gotoutcompeted byH. sapiensleaving inherited from Neandertais (SN:6/5/10,
Denisovans as twoofpossibly manysub- Africaalonga seriesofuninterruptedp.5).Whaťsmore, nuclearDNAretrieved
speciesgraduallyincorporated intoa uni- pathsstartingaround60,000yearsago. fromStoneAge fossilsin places cold
form, modern version of H sapiens. Competition the same resources enoughtopreserve
for itgossipsaboutlong-
Newgeneticevidenceandmorearti- createdan intenserivalry thatdiscour- agoliaisonsbetween peopleandanother
factsthattellAsia'sside oftheevolu- aged interbreeding, manyresearchers evolutionary relative,the Denisovans
tionary storymayoffer theonlychance claimed.Neandertaislostthesurvival (SN:1/15/11, p. 10).
forsettling,or at least narrowing, the sweepstakes anddiedoutaround30,000 Telltale DNA suggeststhat many
dispute. yearsago.H. sapienspressedon,ulti- ancientgroupsmigrated backandforth
mately reachingSouthAmerica byabout to newareas.Smallin numbers, those
So long,Eve 14,000yearsago. groupsspentgenerations evolving dis-
Onlya fewyearsago,Neandertaishad A famous1987 studyof mitochon- tinctive physicalcharacteristics inrela-
reputationas evolutionary drialDNA,whichis passedfrommoth- tiveisolationbeforerunning
a scientific intoother
also-rans.Theseedsoftheirdestruction ers to theiroffspring, spawned this wanderers with
andinterbreeding them.
weresownaround1.7millionyearsago idea - knownas the out-of-Africa or In thisway,variousgenetictraitsgot
whenHomo erectus- an earlyHomo recentAfrican originmodel.Analysesof passed amongcloselyrelatedgroups
species- trekked from AfricaintoAsia. mitochondrial DNA sequencesin peo- overvastterritories.
This hardyspecies, the firsthuman ple aroundtheworldsuggestedthata "Wewerenaïvetothinkthathumans

Threeviews Inwhathasbeenthedominantmodelofhumanevolution Homo

(left), evolved
sapiens inAfrica
andspreadacross
theglobe,
replacing
other
Homo With
populations. evidence
ofinterbreeding, alternative
though, models getmore
may attention:
Inoneview ancient
(center), populations
assimilated
with
a more
modern version.
Another holds
(right) that
anabundanceofinterbreedingallgroups
kept as part
ofonespecies.

§0
CM

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o
zJÉ
LU
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e(0
s

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FEATURE I TANGLED
ROOTS

Homoheidelbergensis
1.Homo an
heidelbergensis,
H.erectus
descendant,
origi-
natesatleast600,000years
agoinanunknown location
and
spreadsacross southern
Africa,
EuropeandsouthernAsia.
2. Between300,000and
400,000 yearsago,
H.heidelbergensis
evolves
into
H.neanderthalensis.
Waves of Neandertais
radiate
outward.
Homoerectus
migration 1. Homoerectus in
evolves
Human ancestors Africa
nearly2 million
left
Africa
¡na series yearsago.
ofpulsesbeginning Homosapiens
2 million
nearly years 2. Members ofthegrouptrek JLBy130,000 yearsagoan
ago,accordingto intoAsiaabout1.7million lineofH.heidel-
Africa-based
models.
prevailing yearsago. becomes
bergensis H.sapiens.
Butwhere theywent 3.Theysurviveuntil
perhaps H.sapiens
leaveAfrica
starting
andwhen remains 200,000 yearsago.Some around60,000yearsago.
unclear.
New genetic researchersthink
H.erectus 2. Membersofthespeciesmove
datamay - or
clarify evolves
into small-bodied fromAfrica
into
Europe some-
further
confuse- the inIndonesia.
'hobbits' timearound50,000yearsago.
picture.

justmarchedoutofAfrica,
killedsome andsometimes interbredwithotheroff- championeda minorityview known
Neandertais
andpopulatedtheworld/' shootsofH. heidelbergensis, including as the assimilationmodel. It holds
JohnShea ofStony
saysarchaeologist Neandertaisand Denisovans.Stringer thatH. sapiensoriginated inAfricabut
BrookUniversity
inNewYork. suspectsthat occasionalinterbreeding interbredfairlyoften with Neandertais
withancienthumanlikespecieshad a and otherevolutionaryrelatives.An
Remodelingthe past limitedeffect
ontheanatomy ofH. sapi- increasingnumber ofgeneticchangesto
Asa keyarchitect oftheformerly domi- ens. Closelyrelatedspeciesofbaboons humanDNAoverthelast10,000years,
nantout-of-Africa modelofhumanevo- and otherprimatesinterbreedwhere stimulated bymating acrossmuchlarger
Chris of
lution,anthropologist Stringer populationrangesoverlap without los- populations than in the StoneAge,has
theNaturalHistory MuseuminLondon ingtheirbiologicalidentities, hesays. erasedevidenceoffarmorethana 2.5
wascaught offguardbyreports ofancient While survivingNeandertal and percentNeandertalgeneticheritage,
interbreeding. Stringer now accepts Denisovan genes caused Stringerto Smithsuspects.
thatgeneticintermingling occurred, add a dashofinterbreeding to his out- In this view,ancienthumansand
buthe seesthatactivity as secondary to of-Africa model, thosesame DNA rev- Neandertais shareda mosaicofskeletal
genetic evolutionthathadalready largely elationsdelighted theoristswho have traitsdespitebelonging toseparatespe-
moldedH. sapiensinAfrica. as
long regardedinterbreeding key a cies.Although researchers havefound
In his new book Lone Survivors , influenceon human evolution.In their no geneticevidence ofa human impact
Stringerdubs his modifiedperspec- view,mobilegroupsofvariousHomo on Neandertais, Neandertalskullsand
tivea "mostly outofAfrica" model.The species- orperhapsofone geographi- jaws fromCroatia'sVindijaCave dat-
modifiedversionprovidesforlimited callyvariablespeciesofancientif.sapi- ingtobetween38,000and32,000years HU CO
=3
interbreeding beforeNeandertaisand ens- musthavecrossedpathsandmated agoexhibita shifttowardsmallerfacial 0 h-
>
Denisov^nsdiedout,butStringer pro- enoughtorockeachother'sgenomes. features likethoseofancientEuropean m a
posesthatthesespecies'genesoffered no "I jumped up and downwhen the H. sapiens, Smithreportedin Aprilin
1
majorsurvival advantagestoH. sapiens. Neandertalgenome came out," says Portland, Ore.,attheAmerican <
Associa- UJ
oc
o
Morethan90 percent ofpeople'sgenes anthropologist Fred Smithof Illinois tionofPhysical Anthropologists' annual O
now derive from African H. State inNormal. reached at E
CL
today sapi- University meeting.People Europeby <OC
ens, Stringersays.As H. sapiens left For morethan20 years,Smithand least40,000 yearsago and couldhave 0 V)
Africa andspreadacrosstheglobestart- anthropologist ErikTrinkausofWash- changedthelookofVindijaNeandertais 3
1
UJ
ing60,000yearsago,theyencountered ingtonUniversityin St. Louis have viainterbreeding. o

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 Anthropologist MilfordWolpoffofobtainfingernail-sized bone samples
theUniversity ofMichigan inAnnArbor
frommuseum-held Homofossils.Sci-
champions this perspective,known entistshope to builda geneticrecord
sincethe1930sas multiregional ofhumanancestorscomparableto the
evolu-
tion.H. sapiensarosealmost2 million existing fossilrecord.
yearsagoas an African populationthatAgroupledbyevolutionary geneticist
manyanthropologists mistakenly JohannesKrauseoftheUniversity
label of
asH. erectus,Wolpoff Those
says. ancient
Tübingen, is
Germany,trying toremove
AfricansrapidlymovedintoAsia and and reassemblenuclearDNAfromthe
Europe,spawning bonesofroughly
a seriesofanatomical 20,000-year-old people
variationsontheH. sapienstheme. in Europe.Ifsuccessful, thateffort will
MatingacrossH. sapienssubspecies provide the firstlook at whether Stone
promotedintercontinental AgehumanscarriedmoreNeandertal
unity,and
occurredoftenenoughthatadvanta- genesthanpeopletodaydo."It'sa com-
geousgenesin one populationspread pletelyopen questionwhethermore
to all others.In thisway,a traitsuchas
interbreeding occurredinthepastthan
a prominentchin,forexample,could whatwe'vefoundso far," Krausesays.
3.TheyheadtoEastAsiaand haveappearedinAfricabeforebecom- Preliminary evidencethat Neandertais
then
toIndonesiaandinto andDenisovanspassedbeneficial
Australia ingwidespread,whereasothertraits, genes
by50,000years toH. sapienssuggests was
ago. includinga highforehead,couldhave interbreeding
4.Thenortheast
Asiancrowd radiatedfromanAsianhomeland. not only common butalso crucial to sur-
crosses
intoNorthAmerica A populationexplosionthatbegan vival.A2011investigation ledbyStanford
andarrives
inSouthAmerica 50,000 yearsago and has accelerated University geneticistPeter Parhamcon-
by14,000yearsago. in thelast 10,000years,accompanied cludedthatseveralgenesinvolved inthe
by adultslivingprogressively longer,
body'sdisease-fighting immune system
Traces of interbreeding on Vindija prompted so muchbreeding spreadfrom
acrosspop- Neandertais andDenisovans
fossilsfita scenarioin whichAfrican ulationsthathumanracesdisappeared tohumansandarenowcommon insome
H. sapienscould reproducewithany altogether, Wolpoff asserts.Peoplenow
parts ofAsia.Further for
support geneti-
otherHomopopulation, including those encompassa uniform specieswithmore
callyadvantageous mating acrossspecies
oftenregarded as differentspecies,says minorregionalvariationsin skincolor,would be bad news for Stringer's mostly
anthropologist JohnRelethford ofthe statureandothercharacteristics. out-of-Africamodel.
StateUniversity ofNewYorkatOneonta. "I thinkhumanityincludedNean- Otherresearchers comparing genetic
Hundreds,perhaps thousands, of dertais,althoughmanydisagree,"says contributions in people around the
humanand humanlikegroupsmoved Wisconsin's Hawks. worldtodayare gettinga handle on
acrossAfrica, Asia and Europeduring whetherDenisovan and Neandertal
the StoneAge,Relethford says.Some Genetic rescue genescaughton in some populations
groupsmatedwithothers,some kept Puttingtogetherthe geneticbits and morethanothers.
theirdistanceandothersattackedcom- pieceswillbe a complextask.In a recent Krause and his colleaguesrecently
petitors. Anunknown number ofmobile twist, a teamledbySarahTishkoff ofthe found Denisovan DNA in Austra-
bandsdiedout. University ofPennsylvaniareportsthat lian Aboriginesand nativesofseveral
"We'retrying toreconstruct a bigevo- threehunter-gatherer groupscurrently Oceanicislandsbutnotin residentsof
lutionary gridfroma smallnumberof livinginAfricacarrygeneticsignatures mainlandSoutheastAsia. Denisovans
datapoints/' Relethfordsays. thatmayhavebeenproducedbyinter- mayhavegonefromSoutheastAsiato
Whileassimilationists see different breedingwitha now-extinct African Oceanicislandswheretheyinterbred
Homospecies movingalongthatgrid Homo species 30,000 to 70,000 years withpeople who eventuallyreached
and sometimesinterbreeding, another ago. Butwithoutanygeneticmaterial Australiaon canoes or rafts,proposes
perspective lumpsNeandertais, Deniso- fromthis mysteriousStone Age spe- Krause,who formerly workedwitha
vansand'others intoa singlespeciesthat cies,it'shardto makeanyfirmclaims, teamthatanalyzedthegenetic blueprint
evolvedon different continents begin- Tishkoff and colleaguesreportin the of Neandertaisand Denisovans.The
ningnearly 2 million
yearsago.Far-flung,Aug.3 Cell. finding wouldexplainwhynativegroups
physicallydistinctivehumangroups A fullerpicture of human evolu- nowlivinginAustralia, NewGuineaand
interbredenoughduringtheirtrav- tionaryhistoryclearlyawaitsfurther nearbyislandsdisplayslightly different
els to keepH. sapiensgenetically glued ancientDNAevidence.Researchteams amountsandtypesofDenisovanDNA.
together, theseresearchers propose. aroundtheworldarenowcompeting to Southeast Asians may, however,

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FEATURE I TANGLED
ROOTS

possess roughly1 percentDenisovan

ancestry, say evolutionary geneticists
PontusSkoglund andMattiasJakobsson
ofUppsalaUniversity inSweden.Asmall
geneticconnection betweenSoutheast
Asiansand Denisovansemergedwhen
comparingthe genetic instruction
booksofa largersampleoflivingpeople
withtheancientSiberiangenome,the
researchers reported ina 2011paper.
Ifthatfinding holdsup,thenDeniso-
vansinterbred unevenly withdifferent
groups of ancient humans. So didNean- Twoskullsfrom nearby Israelicaves containa mixofmodern human andNeandertal
dertais,buton a geographically grander traits.The left skull dates to roughly 100,000 yearsago and is usually attributedto
scale,saysHawks.Byconsulting datathat modern H.sapiens. Theright skull,from thesametime,is considered Neandertal.
otherresearcherspostedon an open-
accesswebsite,he has comparedNean- documentthepresencein EastAsia of in ancientEastAsiawas also a meeting
dertalDNA withgenomesfromabout teardrop-shapedhand axes made by ofequal minds.Implements createdby
1,000individuals living in differentparts H. erectus starting 1.7million yearsago, both speciesrange from simpleflakes
oftheworld. says Harvard University archaeologist struckoffstonesto finely chiseledblades,
Smalldifferences inNeandertal ances- OferBar-Yosef. H. erectusfossilsand Sheasays.Homopopulations apparently
tryappearinpeoplefrom different popu- toolsdatetothesametimeontheIndo- adaptedtoolmaking to environmental
lations,Hawksreported at thephysical nesianislandofJava. conditionsratherthancrafting increas-
anthropology meeting. He believesthat New finds show that Neandertais, like inglycomplex tools over time. Contrary
hisfindings are consistent withmulti- H. sapiens,alsowentonplentyofinter- toconventional archaeological thinking,
regionalevolution:Physically distinc- continental roadtrips, sothetwospecies no toolstyledistinguishes Neandertais
tivegroupsofH. sapiensoccasionally couldhavetangoedovertensofmillions fromH. sapiens, Sheaargues.
expandedtheirrangesand sometimes ofsquarekilometers. Artifacts recently His scenariosuggeststhatsophisti-
matedwhentheycrossedpaths,leaving discovered inChinaresemble toolsasso- catedthinking neededformanufactur-
anunevenmarkonensuing generations. ciated with Neandertais in Europe and ing diversetoolkits emerged200,000
A supporter ofthemostlyout-of-AfricaWestAsia,Bar-Yosef says.Neandertais yearsagoormoreinbothspecies.That's
approachwouldprobably treatHawks' aggressively expandedtheirterritory a prospect welcomed byassimilation and
as
findings regionalblips in what were eastward beginningperhaps 75,000 multiregional theorists alike.An oppos-
niinimal geneticexchanges. yearsago,beforehumanshadleftAfrica ingview- congenialto mostlyout-of-
Europeanscarryan averageofabout in significant numbers,he and Anna Africaadvocates- holdsthatH. sapiens
2.5 percentNeandertalDNA, while Belfer-Cohenof Hebrew University aloneexperienced a majormentalleap
the Chinese carry3 percent,Hawks in Jerusalemproposein an upcoming between70,000and50,000yearsago.
reported. Andslightly moreNeandertal Quaternary International. No one yetknowswhether Asiahar-
DNAappearsinnorthern Chinesethan Trinkausalso sees signsthatthick- bors a motherlode of stones,bones
insouthern Chinese.Africans possessan boned,relatively largeStoneAgepeople and ancient DNA capable of untan-
oflessthan 1 Neander- who lived more than '
average percent 50,000yearsago, glingH. sapiens mentaland physical
tal ancestry. Regardlessofexactlyhow a groupofarchaicH. sapiens, interbred evolution, orthemovements ofmyriad
muchinterbreeding occurred during the fairlyoften with Neandertais in what's ancient For
groups. now, Asia's Stone
StoneAge,Neandertais seemtohaveleft nowNorthChina.Archaichumanfos- Ageis as enigmatic as thetangledroots
anunevengeneticmark. silsfromthatregion,mainlydescribed ofitshumaninhabitants.
inChinesepublications, looklikeNean- "Ten yearsago,we wouldnothave
Going East dertais in some respects. Trinkaus and expectedtheextentofthemystery that
Ongoinginvestigations of fossils and his colleagues have also reported that has emerged," Hawks says. ■
stonetools,especiallyinAsia,willhave a 100,000-year-old humanjaw andtwo
theirownstoryto tell.Numerouslong- associatedteethfoundat SouthChina's Exploremore
distancetreksfromAfricato Asia by ZhirenCavedisplaya mixofarchaicand ■ Evolutionary genetics from theMax
some of the earliesttoolmakersnow anatomically moderntraits. PlanckInstituteforEvolutionary Li.
u.
0
appearundeniable. Agrowing number of Some researchersargue that the Anthropology:www.eva.mpg.de/ 1
archaeological sites,especially China, meetingofbiologically
in relatedspecies genetics 5

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