Prehistoric human DNA found without bones

WASHINGTON: International scientists have uncovered prehistoric human DNA from caves without bones, an advance that could shed new light on human history and evolution.

The study published in the journal Science is based on 85 samples from sediments dating to the Pleistocene, a period that extended from 550,000 years ago until 14,000 year before the modern era.

The samples came from eight caves in Belgium, Croatia, France, Russia and Spain.

These archeological sites are already well known to have been occupied by long-lost cousins of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as by a variety of animals that are now extinct. "This work represents an enormous scientific breakthrough," said Antonio Rosas, scientist at Spain’s Natural Science Museum in Madrid.

"We can now tell which species of hominid occupied a cave and on which particular stratigraphic level, even when no bone or skeletal remains are present."  To uncover human traces, scientists relied on analyzing fragments of mitochondrial DNA.