By Jacque Wilson, CNN updated 8:50 AM EDT, Thu October 23, 2014 This thigh bone was found six years ago on the banks of the Irtysh River in Siberia. STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- DNA from a 45,000-year-old leg bone is giving scientists a better idea of when modern humans first started mating with Neanderthals. The thigh bone was found six years ago on the banks of the Irtysh River in Siberia by Nikolai Peristov, a Russian artist who carves jewelry from ancient mammoth tusks, according to the journal Nature. "It was quite fossilized, and the hope was that it might turn out (to be) old. We hit the jackpot," Bence Viola, a paleoanthropologist who co-led a study of the remains, told Nature. "It was older than any other modern human yet dated." 2013: Oldest human DNA found in Spain For those who aren't familiar with our Stone Age ancestors, Neanderthals are an extinct species of human who differ in DNA from what scientists call "modern humans" by less than 1%. Modern humans first left Africa about 60,000 years ago, according to National Geographic, and wandered toward Asia and Europe. There, they encountered Neanderthals and another species of human called Denisovans. … Continue reading →

GUTHRIE, Oklahoma - A Guthrie man was arrested this week after DNA evidence linked him to a 16-year-old sexual assault that was nearly past the statute of limitations. Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) arrested 35-year-old David Jerome Stephens II on Wednesday, after a DNA analyst alerted the bureau of a positive hit in the Combined DNA Index System. The alleged crime occurred on Christmas Day in 1997. The victim, an 85-year-old woman, was beaten with a pipe, robbed and sexually assaulted. The victim passed away in 2008. The positive hit in the DNA index system happened just days before the statute of limitations for the crime would have run out. Luckily, the OSBI agent was able to file a John Doe warrant based on the new DNA evidence, which allowed the case to remain legally active. Stephens was arrested Wednesday evening at his home in the 11700 block of Red Cedar Rd. in Guthrie. DNA from Stephens was collected after a conviction in 2013 for Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance within 1,000 feet of a School/Park/Child. Stephens was booked into the Logan County Jail. Details on a possible bond were not available. According to the … Continue reading →

The DNA from the 45,000-year-old bone of a man from Siberia is helping to pinpoint when modern humans and Neanderthals first interbred, researchers say. Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, others once lived on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone living outside Africa today is Neanderthal in origin. It remains uncertain when interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals occurred. Previous estimates of these events ranged from 37,000 to 86,000 years ago. [See Photos of Humanity's Closest Relative] To help solve this mystery, scientists analyzed the shaft of a thighbone found by an artist and mammoth ivory collector, Nikolai Peristov, on the left bank of the river Irtysh near the settlement of Ust'-Ishim in western Siberia in 2008. They calculated the age of the man's bone to be about 45,000 years old. "This is the earliest directly dated modern human outside of Africa and the Middle East, and the oldest modern … Continue reading →