The Ancient Girl Whose DNA Revealed Her Parents Were Two Different Human Species
Were they in contact?
Did they interbreed?
When did they diverge?
For Denny herself, the remaining questions are more personal — or as personal as questions about a 90,000-year-old individual can be.
What was the context of her parents’ meeting?
Did her Neanderthal mother and Denisovan father form a lasting bond, or was their encounter brief?
Did Denny grow up in one community or the other — in a Neanderthal group, in a Denisovan group, or in some mixed community?
Were there other hybrid individuals in the population she was part of?