SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
Early Migrants Reached Asia in Two Waves
A new study of ancient DNA has provided insight into two Stone Age human migrations to Asia. Researchers say that Denisovans, an ancient humanlike population previously identified via nuclear DNA taken from a finger bone excavated in Siberia's Denisova Cave, contributed a small portion of genes to living New Guineans, Australian aborigines, two aboriginal groups in the Philippines and populations on several nearby islands.
In other news of the ancient past, paleontologists have found "incredibly rare" fossils of a new species of raptor dinosaur. It's one of the few troodontid theropods--small, birdlike predators--ever discovered in North America.
Two parallel lines of volcanoes stretch from the Big Island of Hawaii in the southeast to Molokai in the northwest. Volcanoes on the Samoan and Marquesas islands are similarly paired. A new study finds that, as in Hawaii, one row is richer than the other in versions of elements such as lead and neodymium.
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