Tibetans live high life thanks to extinct human relatives
Modern people’s DNA adaptation to altitude passed down from ancient Denisovans
THE HIGH LIFE The Tibetan plateau, shown outside the town of Aba, is high, cold and has little oxygen. Scientists now say a genetic variant that helped Tibetans adapt to life on the high-altitude steppe came from extinct people known as Denisovans.
Jialiang Gao, www.peace-on-earth.org/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)