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On 12 May, 2017, an article was published in the Science journal entitled

Neandertal and Denisovan DNA from Pleistocene sediments.

.”Pleistocene sediments” refers to soil sediments from the epoch often referred to
as the Ice Age.

.The topic of the article is mainly about recovering and analyzing DNA from soil,
in this case for the purpose of detecting the presence of early hominins
(specifically Neandertal and Denisovans).

.Heretofore there has been much evidence for the presence of ancient hominins;
however, it is difficult to resolve precisely which hominins, due to the lack of
fossil evidence.

.Testing DNA from extant hominin remains led to the discovery of a distinct group
of ancient hominins, the Denisovans, in a cave in Siberia---these remains are rare.

.If there is a way to detect whether ancient homins were present at some
archaeological site, then research might not be impeded by the lack of remains.

.A prior method has been used to indicate the past presence of animals and plants
at certain location, and another method improved on this by being able to indicate
whether or not the DNA was, in fact, ancient.

.The method works by isolating genetic material in solution from a sample of soil;
after this the DNA can be extracted.

.The idea is to search for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of hominins (in this case,
Neandertal and Denisovan).

.The authors conducted the study on 85 samples of soil from seven sites which are
known to have had presence of early hominins.

.At two sites---Denisova cave and Trou Al’Wesse---Neandertal mtDNA was found where
no physical remains remained; and in the latter case the presence of Neandertals
was indicated by other evidence (e.g. animal bones with cut-marks).

.Two other sites did not evince any presence of hominins from mtDNA, but this isn’t
unexpected because of the age of the sites.

.Looking at the concentrations of DNA in the soil tested, it is consistent with the
DNA having originated from soft tissue or excreta.

.One advantage of the method used is that the soil samples do not need to be of
very high quality; indeed, samples stored for years at room temperature can be
used.

.An implication of this is that samples taken and stored for prior studies are
viable for extraction and investigating.

.With some of the sites that did not reveal anything, there were very few samples
available.

.This suggests that more extensive sampling is required for better results.

.The quantities of DNA recovered from this method are surprisingly large even
compared to DNA recovered from physical, skeletal elements.

.Unfortunately, none of these findings show that important unanswered questions

about early hominins will be answered anytime soon.

.For one thing, the oldest sequence analyzed was 700,000 years old.

.Regardless, this research could be used to identify exactly which species were
present at a given site for which evidence of presence at all exists.

.Overall, this study is important because it shows that physical remains aren’t
necessary to prove the past presence of hominins at archaeological sites.

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1. Did you like this article? Why or why not? – Explain in detail.

.I did enjoy this article.

.For one, it was clear and concise, and was very readable.

.Additionally, the quality of the study itself cannot be understated; and the
article simply reports on the findings and the implications thereof, without
fallacious assumptions or meaningless speculation.

.The aforesaid implications also contribute to why I like the article.

.That is, the findings on which the article reports seem to anticipate the method
discussed’s being used to further this field of science.

2. What was the best/worst part of the article? Explain why that part was the
best/worst.

.Especially for a journal article, the structure and presentation of this article
was the best part to me.

.For one, the wording was clear, concise, and readable.

.Even for someone who wasn’t very knowledgeable in the field, they could probably
be able to follow along well.

.The way the article was structured also seemed to be geared more toward
understanding the subject---not as a reference; however, to a researcher, the
information is exactly where expected.

.Also, the fact that essentially all speculation in the article is reserved until
the final sentence really enhances the credibility of it.

3. Choose a statement discussed in the article and give an explicit opinion about
it.

Statement:

This is likely to shed light on the genetic affiliations of the occupants of large
numbers of archaeological sites where no human remains are found.

.I agree with the idea that this method has potential with regards to studies of
early hominins.

.By being able to find DNA without physical remains, archaeologists can better
understand the distribution and evolution of early humans.
.New information collected via this technique could prove or disprove theories
about the early humans.

4. What significance does this article have to our studies in the classroom?

.While we have been learning about DNA in our class, this article does not have any
real pertinence to our studies.

.Our class has been focusing on the question of “what is/comprises DNA?”.

.This is not necessarily related to the subject of the article, which has more to
do with archaeology than biology.

.In fact, the the closest it gets to our studies is that it deals with extracting
DNA, in this case from soil.

.The article is also very statistically oriented.

5. What significance does this article have to science and the real world?

.This article is significant because it could provide a way to better understand

the early hominins.

.This is because physical remains---such as bones---are no longer necessary to

indicate the past presence of hominins.

.In addition, the methods discussed can ascertain the specific kind of early
hominin that was present.

.Besides this, the method only requires samples of soil from some site; further,
the samples do not even need to be kept in specific conditions, and could perhaps
be reused from prior archaeological excursions.

.The yields from this method are also comparable to the DNA recovered from actual
physical evidence.