Tales of Human History Told by Neandertal and Denisovan DNA That Persist in Modern Humans

Fascinating presentation by Joshua Akey on Neandertal and Denisovan DNA that have been identified in Modern Humans. It was interesting to find out that the ancient DNA is not the same in those who have it. That there may be some overlap, but there are outliers that like dendrochronology have floating chronologies that with more sample size can be tied into the mix. My only complaint is the use of the National Geographic image of a Neandertal. Why is it that Science and Hollywood has to show ancient peoples as unkempt and dirty faced? Any anthropologist studying primitive cultures can attest that people from young to old and from male to female in so-called Primitive societies take great pride in their appearance. All animals literally like to "put on a good face" in public by grooming themselves or others of their species.

Crazy that there were other species of “humans” that were genetically close enough to mate with, and that could produce viable offspring. Like certain wild species of cats, and common house cats. Certainly paints a picture of a different world in our not so distance past.

Great presentation! Thank you for making it accessible to non-specialists! 😁

Appreciate the free education.

I really enjoyed the presentation! I can't wait to see what they can unlock next! Thank you!

One thing I find frustrating when discussing prehistory, people, or animals is, usually the contemporary geography is left out. Even just 6000 years ago, the coastlines and land forms were notably different! Talking about hominins, or even dinosaurs or Ice Age wildlife, it seems there's a huge missing piece of their world at that time. We usually hear about, or get a description of THAT object and THEIR local habitat. It would help appreciate and understand all the changes, if larger surrounding regions were also included.

This investigative on human genetics and migration always fascinated me. Thanks and keep up with the good work. From HK

Very interesting, thank you. It's cool to hear about the travels of early humans and how the population mixed with each other. Seems like it's been a thing with humans for ever and a day. I could have listened to this for hours, that 18 minutes just flew by...

What strikes me is how they found 400,000 year old DNA in Sima de los Huesos, Spain which is Denisovan.....that's a hell of a long way from Siberia or Melanesia.

This fascinates me. Another recent study has suggested that there is another unknown admixture in africa, not neanderthal or denisovan. Perhaps more than one.

Excellent Presentation!!! Thanks for making this more fun and understandable than my college professors

I'm pretty sure I've dated a Neanderthal....

Very good presentation. Scientific research such as this are key to our future.

Extremely interesting but I wanted it longer

Very interesting and informative video presented by a highly knowledgeable expert.

What a great talk! So clear and straightforward.

If one thing is clear from sequencing of ancient genomes it's that there was no single gene mutation that by itself "made us human". Yet such magic bullet accounts persist in many discussions of our origins, even while a wealth of DNA data shows how untenable these stories are.

Brilliant new research! Fascinating stuff. 💪🙂

Fascinating lecture- thank you!

Thank you for this information- so interesting.