The Zlatý kůň woman is the fossil of an ancient woman, an
Early European modern human, dated to around 43,000 years ago. She was discovered in the
Koněprusy Caves
Koněprusy Caves (), also Zlatý kůň (Golden Horse), is a cave system in the heart of the limestone region known as Bohemian Karst in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is located in the municipality of Koněprusy, about sout ...
in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
in 1950.
The Zlatý kůň woman is either associated with non-Mousterian and non-
Initial Upper Paleolithic
The Initial Upper Paleolithic (also IUP, ) covers the first stage of the Upper Paleolithic, during which modern human populations expanded throughout Eurasia.
Technology, art and distribution
The Initial Upper Paleolithic period is characteri ...
cultures or with early IUP-like cultures, one of the earliest cultures of modern humans in Europe, which expanded into Eurasia more than 45,000 years ago, following their dispersal out of Africa.
On the basis of genetic dating, the Zlatý kůň individual is believed to be the oldest
anatomically modern human
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science ...
ever to be genetically sequenced. Her genome represents a deeply splitting lineage basal to the subsequent split between
East Eurasians and West Eurasians.
These early Eurasian populations probably mated with
Neanderthals
Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
in the period between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, probably during the initial phase of their expansion in the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, and they carried ~2–9% Neanderthal ancestry in their genomes.
It is also considered that the early modern humans coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe for a period of about 3,000–5,000 years.
The Zlatý kůň woman had a small amount of Neanderthal admixture, going back 70 or 80 generations.
These people do not appear to have been the ancestors of later Europeans, as the very few
ancient DNA
Ancient DNA (aDNA) is DNA isolated from ancient sources (typically Biological specimen, specimens, but also environmental DNA). Due to degradation processes (including Crosslinking of DNA, cross-linking, deamination and DNA fragmentation, fragme ...
samples recovered from this period are not related to later samples.
The Zlatý kůň woman also has contributed genetically neither to later Europeans nor to Asians.
Among the earliest modern humans that have been directly dated to this period are:
* an individual from 46,000 to 44,000 years ago in the
Bacho Kiro cave
The Bacho Kiro cave () is situated west of the town Dryanovo, Bulgaria, only away from the Dryanovo Monastery. It is embedded in the canyons of the Andaka and Dryanovo River. It was opened in 1890 and the first recreational visitors entered ...
, located in present-day
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
;
* a 45,000-year-old
Ust'-Ishim man
Ust'-Ishim man is the term given to the 45,000-year-old remains of one of the early modern humans to inhabit western Siberia. The fossil is notable in that it had intact DNA which permitted the complete sequencing of its genome, one of the old ...
(no continuity with later Eurasians);
* a 40,000-year-old
Tianyuan man
Tianyuan man ( zh, t=田園洞人, s=田园洞人, p=Tiányuándòng Rén) are the remains of one of the earliest modern humans to inhabit East Asia. In 2007, researchers found 34 bone fragments belonging to a single individual at the Tianyuan ...
, who is more closely related to modern Asians and
Native Americans;
*
Oase 1 (no shared ancestry with later Eurasians);
*
Fumane 2, 40,000 BP.
References
External links
Digital facial reconstruction of Zlatý kůň womanFacial approximation of Zlatý kůň woman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zlaty kun woman
1950 in paleontology
Fossils of the Czech Republic
Early European modern humans
Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens fossils