A girl from Siberia's Denisova Cave had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.

90,000 BC

She lived some 90,000 years ago, died at about 13, and is the only first-generation hybrid of two human species ever found.

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The event

• Denny, child of a Neanderthal and a Denisovanc. 90,000 BC · Denisova Cave, Altai. A tiny bone fragment from Denisova Cave, picked out of 2,000 unidentified scraps, belonged to a girl of about 13 who lived some 90,000 years ago. Her genome showed a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father: the only first-generation hybrid of two human species ever found.

Prehistory

More amazing facts

• 60,000 BC · 50,000 BC As recently as 50,000 years ago, humans about 1.1 metres tall lived on the Indonesian island of Flores.
• 48,000 BC · 38,000 BC People sailed to Australia while Neanderthals still lived in Europe.
• 43,000 BC · 2008 One of the oldest modern human genomes came from a bone spotted by a sculptor.
• 38,000 BC · 2010 Neanderthals died out, yet part of them lives on in us. Their genome, decoded in 2010, showed that people of non-African descent carry a small share of Neanderthal DNA, a trace of ancient interbreeding.
• 38,000 BC · 1939 The world's oldest statue spent 30 years in a museum as a heap of fragments.
• 34,000 BC · 2000 BC The mammoths painted in Chauvet Cave 36,000 years ago could still be seen alive in the age of the pharaohs: the last ones, on Wrangel Island, died out around 2000 BC.

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