#4-19 - Human Evolution, Neanderthal, and Denisovans - ft. Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause

Today, Bea talks to Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. His research focuses on the analysis of ancient DNA to investigate topics such as pathogens from historic and prehistoric epidemics, human genetic history, and human evolution. He has contributed to deciphering Neanderthal genetics and the shared genetic heritage of Neanderthals and modern humans. In 2010, while working at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, he discovered the first genetic evidence of the Denisovans, an extinct hominin found in the Altai Mountains in Siberia.

Bea and Johannes talk about the timeline of human evolution starting from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. Prof. Krause tells how they discovered the Denisovans, what we have learned since this discovery, and what differentiates Denisovans from Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens.  They also talk about what the next big discoveries will be in archaeogenetics.  

To find out more information about Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause, check out here:

https://www.eva.mpg.de/archaeogenetics/staff/johannes-krause/#c45293

MPE_EVA’s Twitter: @MPI_EVA_Leipzig

Episode Art: Picture of Prof. Krause © Thomas Victor

                     Background: Photo by Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash

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Intro - Outro music composed by Srinath Ramkumar: https://twitter.com/srinathramkumar

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