Anthropologists from the University of Vienna have succeeded in determining the sex of four individuals of South African Pleistocene hominins, which are about two million years old. They also found that this is the oldest genetic data from a human relative. A preprint of the article is available at: source bioRxiv.
Hominins are a subfamily of the hominin family (Hominidae), which includes Homo sapiens, chimpanzees (Pan), gorillas (Gorilla) and a number of extinct groups.
In the current study, the scientists performed mass spectrometric analysis of the tooth enamel proteomes of four Paranthropus robustus individuals living in South Africa about 2.8-1 million years ago. For a long time the authors were unable to identify Paranthropus robustus—whether it was a relative of Australopithecus or one of its species—some studies suggest the possibility of interspecies crossing. Usually, DNA analysis data gives the answer to this question, but scientists did not have samples suitable for analysis.
The team was able to use tooth enamel, which is thought to be from a variety of P. robustus. The scientists were able to find similar amino acid profiles in all samples that did not contain significant amounts of impurities. It was determined that two people were male and both were female.
The analysis also showed that the four Paranthropus specimens examined were more closely related to Homo than to other primates: they found 17 hominid-specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms, of which only two (COL17A1-636 and ENAM-137) had an allelic state different from modern. people. , Neanderthals and Denisovans.
ancient scientists establishedHow birds choose material for nests.