‘Oldest human DNA’ put together

Scientists have pieced together the oldest human DNA ever recovered after extracting it from the thigh bone of an individual who died 400,000 years ago.

The research throws up a new riddle in the story of human evolution, since it shows the ancient Spaniard was related to a mysterious group of early humans from Siberia.

The DNA belonged to a type of human that long pre-dated our own, whose fossils have been found in large numbers at La Sima de los Huesos – the “bone pit” — at Atapuerca in northern Spain.