The 12,000-year-old skeleton contains the genetic signature of modern Native Americans, suggesting that the earliest Americans and Native Americans share a single ancestral population.

Researchers have now described the complete sequence of the Denisovan genome, shedding light on the relationships between these archaic humans, who were closely related to Neandertals, and modern humans.

The research team, led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, generated a list of recent changes in the human genome that occurred after modern humans diverged from the Denisovans. This list will help scientists understand what sets modern humans apart from the Denisovans and Neandertals.

New research into the genealogies of early Canadian pioneers suggests that the settlers who were first to colonize a new region produced more offspring than the settlers who followed them.

An international research team has sequenced the Neandertal genome, using pill-sized samples of bone powder from three Neandertal bones found in a cave in Croatia. The results appear in the 7 May issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS.