New Type of Human Discovered via Single Pinky Finger
Siberian fossil points to unknown migration out of Africa.
"We had no inkling that this thing existed, and suddenly it's there. That in itself is a remarkable discovery," said Terry Brown, a geneticist at the University of Manchester in the U.K. and co-author of a news article released alongside the study Wednesday by the journal Nature.
If confirmed by further genetic testing, the discovery—dubbed X-woman—will mark the first time that a new human species has been identified solely on the basis of DNA (quick genetics overview).
The 40,000-year-old specimen isn't good for much else—it's far too fragmentary to contain clues to the creature's skeletal structure, musculature, brainpower, or appearance, researchers say.
(Related: "Oldest Skeleton of Human Ancestor Found.")
The new-human discovery implies that there was a wave of human
