Long After Their Bones Were Gone, Neanderthals' DNA Survived in a Cave

DNA from two extinct human relatives — the Neanderthals, and a mysterious branch of humanity called the Denisovans — has been detected in the ancient mud of caves, even though those caves hold no fossils of those individuals, new research shows.The finding suggests that scientists could detect such extinct lineages in places devoid of skeletal remains, the researchers said.The ancestors of modern humans once shared the world with archaic human lineages such as the Neanderthals &