The bones of a teenage hunter-gatherer who died more than 7,000 years ago on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi tell the story of a previously unknown group of humans.
This distinct human lineage has never been found anywhere else in the world, according to new research.
The study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"We have discovered the first ancient human DNA in the island region between Asia and Australia, known as 'Wallacea', providing new insight into the genetic diversity and population history of early modern humans in this little understood part of the world," said study coauthor Adam Brumm, a professor of archaeology at Griffith University's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, via email.
