Scientists collect genetic data from a hominid that lived 2 million years ago

In a new study that has not yet been peer-reviewed, a research team genetic data of African hominids that lived about two million years ago. The article, published in the pre-printed scientific journal bioRvix, explains that the specimens were collected from Swartkrans Cave in South Africa and are dental fossils.

According to the scientists, the genetic data is the oldest ever collected from hominids, and they explain that no hominid DNA more than 400,000 years old had been collected until then. Our ancestors’ genetic data shows that they lived somewhere in South Africa about 2.42 million years ago.

The team analyzed tooth enamel and hominin protein sequences, but they say they don’t know how useful the fossil data will be. Theoretically, the data could help answer questions about human evolution, but they don’t know if it does. Fossils this old can help us learn more about the evolutionary relationships between hominids and humans.

“Here we report the sequencing of enamel proteomes from four 2 million-year (Ma) tooth samples morphologically ascribed to P. robustus from the Swartkrans site by mass spectrometry (MS). Identification of AMELY-specific peptides and semi-quantitative analysis of MS data, biological of all samples allowed us to determine its gender,” the scientists explain in the study.

hominids and humans

Primate tooth enamel has helped preserve proteins for millions of years, and scientists have sequenced the amino acids in each tooth using a process called mass spectrometry. That way, they were able to come up with some interesting answers.

The sequences indicate that Paranthropus was in the hominid group, part of the human lineage. like a distant cousin of the species closest to our lineage. One of the four samples shows a significant difference, suggesting that one of the primates may belong to another group, but they were unable to confirm the information.

Protein analysis also revealed that two primates had only Y chromosome concentrations, while the other two had high X chromosome concentrations; well, there were two males and two females. In any case, it’s important to stress that the data are still insufficient to discover more about humanity’s evolutionary history.

“Despite these caveats, recovery of phylogenetically informative genetic material [de dois milhões de anos] The scientists study could be considered a potentially transformative advance for paleoanthropology in African hominids.

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