远古祖先的幽灵仍活在今天的人类中

Ancient Homo erectus teeth from China yield protein variants seen in Denisovans—and us ANDREW CURRY F or more than a century, researchers have studied the bones of a central character in the human story, a heavy- browed human ancestor named Homo erectus whose fossils were eventually found on three continents. Now, a new study reveals the first clear glimpse of the proteins—and therefore the DNA—of this ancestor. team. She says it points to a time and place when multiple human ances- tors coexisted and mingled. “There’s far greater complexity in terms of hominins across Eurasia than previ- ously recognized. This time period is of huge interest.” Institute of Vertebrate Paleonto- logy and Paleoanthropology worked to recover proteins. …