In a first, researchers have sequenced genetic material from 400,000-year-old Homo erectus fossils — and the results reveal deep genetic links to both modern humans and the enigmatic Denisovans.

H. erectus was the earliest human ancestor to travel outside Africa and successfully spread into Europe, Asia and Oceania beginning 1.8 million years ago. With a relatively large brain and the ability to craft complex stone tools, H. erectus was the longest-lasting human ancestor until it disappeared around 108,000 years ago. But paleoanthropologists have long wondered if H. erectus overlapped and interbred with Homo sapiens, which evolved around 300,000 years ago in Africa.