Denny (hybrid hominin) sex or gender female
DNA analysis
The bone fragment, identified by the code DC1227 (GenBank Accession = KU131206) or as Denisova 11, may have originated from a human arm or leg. Prior to the extraction of material for genetic analysis, DC1227 weighed 1.68 g (0.059 oz), and had maximum dimensions of 24.7 mm (0.97 in) by 8.39 mm (0.330 in). In 2016, a team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, led by paleogeneticists Viviane Slon and Svante Pääbo, extracted six DNA samples and produced ten libraries of complete genome sequences to an average coverage of 2.6-fold. Isolated mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA indicated the archaic human was of nearly equal proportion Neanderthal and Denisovan. A comparison of the specimen's X chromosomes and autosomes showed it belonged to a female. The estimated heterozygosity of Denisova 11, found to be comparable to present day Africans suggests that the girl was a first-generation Neanderthal-Denisovan hybrid.Subsequent analyses showed a high likelihood that her Denisovan father also had some Neanderthal ancestry introduced into his genome hundreds of generations before his lifetime. Denisova 11's genome thus constitutes the first direct evidence for at least two instances of interbreeding between Neanderthals and Denisovans. Even more surprising, the researchers determined that the girl's mother's genome was more closely related to Western European Neanderthal DNA, excavated thousands of miles away at the Vindija Cave, Croatia, than the Neanderthals who lived in the Siberian cave where her daughter's remains were found. This finding suggests that Neanderthals migrated in multiple waves from Western Europe to Central Eurasia and encountered the Denisovans several times over a span of tens of thousands of years, and possibly coexisted with them for periods of time.
biological sex gender identity gender expression sexual orientation gender classification