Jerusalem (AFP)

We know what the Neanderthal Man was like. But thanks to DNA, Israeli scientists have succeeded in giving body and face to another of our former cousins, the Denisovian, who died 50,000 years ago.

Men of Denisova, whose first remains were discovered in 2008, scientists knew little about: teeth, bits of bone and a lower jaw found. Too little to know what they looked like

Israeli scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the direction of Professor Liran Carmel, used the DNA block changes found on these fragments to guess which genes were activated and thus reconstruct the physical appearance of these far-off cousins.

"It is very difficult to start from DNA sequences to draw the anatomy of its owner," Professor Carmel said on Thursday, presenting the results of their research in Jerusalem. "Police around the world would dream of taking DNA from a crime scene and being able to identify (physically) a suspect."

Scientists have developed a new method, "85% reliable," he adds. Thus, they were able to reconstruct, for the first time and after three years of work, the general appearance of the Denisovians, he continues.

They were able to highlight 56 ​​differences between the Denisovian and the modern Man, as well as with the Neanderthal Man. The Denisovian, for example, had a small front, unlike modern humans, but similar to that of the Neanderthals.

"The Denisovians are closer to the Neanderthal than we are, because they are closer on the scale of evolution," says Professor Carmel.

The scientist hopes that this reconstruction will authenticate skulls discovered in China a few years ago and which seem, by their width, to belong to the Denisovians.

- Mixing -

These findings were made possible by the discovery of a pink bone in a cave in Siberia, near Mongolia, said Erella Hovers, professor of prehistoric archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Researchers, mostly Russian, have been conducting excavations there for about forty years.

The bone belongs to "a 13-year-old Denisovian girl who died in the cave of Denisova in Siberia about 70,000 years ago and left us her tiny pink bone," says Professor Carmel.

"This pink bone has opened a whole new chapter in the evolution of man," he says.

The Denisovians and Neanderthals separated 400,000 / 500,000 years ago, becoming two distinct species of the genus Homo (Homo sapiens forming another). Leaving Africa, the Neanderthals dispersed into Europe and western Asia, while the Denisovans moved to East Asia.

The Men of Denisova died out 50,000 years ago, but scientists do not know why.

These distant cousins ​​have left part of their genome to some Homo sapiens: less than 1% in Asian and Amerindian populations, and up to 5% for Australian aboriginals or Papuans from New Guinea.

They have also transmitted a gene to Tibetans that allows them to breathe at high altitude.

Neanderthals emigrated to areas where there were Men of Denisova, Hovers recalls. Scientists have even found a bone fragment of a girl born to a Denisovian father and a Neanderthal woman, she says.

"What was their cultural relationship and how did they interact?" Asks the professor, before making it clear: it is now up to "archaeologists" to determine it.

© 2019 AFP