A team of researchers at Yale University has established that the earliest populations of Near Oceania interbred with at least three distinct groups related to the Denisovans

A team of researchers at Yale University has established that the earliest populations of Near Oceania interbred with at least three distinct groups related to the Denisovans. The conclusion rests on an analysis of the genomes of 177 people from 12 populations in Papua New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands, together with 1,284 previously published genomes.

One of the authors is convinced that the genes inherited from the Denisovans strengthened resistance to the viruses and bacteria that early humans encountered in Oceania. Moreover, Denisovan genes influenced the development of the skeleton in local populations, and the very same gene, TRPS1, underwent strong selection among the hunter-gatherers of the rainforests of Central Africa and among the highlanders of Ecuador.