Many enceinte mammals died out at the end of the Pleistocene when the last frigid period come to a finis . Although nonextant , some of these animals were able to transmit something forward   –   their genes . This turns out to be   the case for the cave bears that go out 24,000 years ago and whose deoxyribonucleic acid has been found in the genome of living brown bears .

As reported inNature Ecology & Evolution , researchers have found that between 0.9 and 2.4 percent of the genomes of all brown bear they enquire originated from cave bear . Thanks to crossbreeding , it come along that some of the DNA of the extinct animal has hang on .

“ By any standard definition , [ cave bears ] are extinct , but it does n’t mean that their gene pool is erased , because they continue to live on in the genomes of these living animals , ” moderate author Axel Barlow , from University of Potsdam , toldNational Geographic .

The team compared the genomes of both brown bears and gelid bears with ear bone samples from four cave bears dated to   over 35,000 eld ago . genome are not easy to read : they moderate a lot of information we do n’t understand , distant species might have the same gene by hazard , and   mortal from the same species might not share the same genes . However , the team noticed   that cave bears and brown bear shared more genes than either metal money did with polar bear . This was not a coincidence .

“ If we get an overabundance of genome locating where cave bears and chocolate-brown bears are showing more law of similarity to each other than to polar bear , then something else must have happen , ” added Barlow . “ And that something is hybridization between the two metal money . ”

gene from out mintage have popped up in several species , admit humans . Up to 4   percent of the non - African human genome is from Neanderthals . Last week , a hominid fossil was depict to bea hybridof a boorish mom and a Denisovan ( another species of human ) dad . Modern humans are more tight related to these two species than brown bears are to cave bear . This study heighten some interesting ideas about the construct of mintage , extinction , and just how coherent some genes can be .

[ H / T : National Geographic ]