
Reconstructing Denisovan Anatomy Using DNA Methylation Maps - bookofjoe
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30954-7
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fsloth
Holy crap. I was not aware it was possible to map DNA to actual phenotype
morphologies.

Are there any other examples of out there of this type of work were organism
shape and function can be guestimated to a good accuracy from just DNA?

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dekhn
I can't speak to the work's accuracy (I think their PCAs are basically just
the 2-3 most common facial variations seen in the wild), it was contoversial
when published, but just given the facial similarity of identical twins raised
in different environments, one imagines this should be very possible.
[https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/08/29/1711125114](https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/08/29/1711125114)

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glofish
One unexplored dimension of this study is that the quality of predictions
might get worse and worse as you add more data (individuals).

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jajag
Some info on the Xuchang skulls mentioned in the summary:
[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/ancient-skulls-
may-b...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/ancient-skulls-may-belong-
elusive-humans-called-denisovans)

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logfromblammo
Interesting. Someone give them the DNA from a Floresian "hobbit" skeleton and
see if they correctly predict a pygmy.

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mkl
It seems no one has been able to extract homo floresiensis DNA yet. Their warm
humid environment was not conducive to DNA preservation, but the Denisova cave
in Siberia has cold stable temperatures, so preserves DNA surprisingly well.

