Viviane Slon is a paleogeneticist at the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network. Well-known scientists currently based at ...

. She identified that a teenage girl born 90,000 years ago had both

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

and

Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...

parents. She was selected as one of

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

in 2018.

Early life and education

Slon completed her doctoral studies at the

. She won the 2017

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is an international group of awards that recognize and support outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. Nine prizes of $300,000 are awarded each year to outstand ...

. She worked at the

Sackler Faculty of Medicine Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (formerly the Sackler Faculty of Medicine) is a medical school affiliated with Tel Aviv University, located in Tel Aviv, Israel. History The Sackler School of Medicine was named for Arthur, Mortimer a ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

on the earliest human fossils outside Africa. She studied the

Qafzeh Mount Precipice (, "''Har HaKfitsa''"; , "''Jebel al-Qafzeh''", "Mount of the Leap"), also known as Mount of Precipitation, Mount of the Leap of the Lord and Mount Kedumim is located just outside the southern edge of Nazareth, 2.0 km southwe ...

9 Skull, looking at developmental

malocclusion In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855–1 ...

Research and career

In 2018 Slon was appointed a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

working on

neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

s at the

. She develops techniques to remove hominin DNA from sediments. Her doctoral supervisor

Svante Pääbo Svante Pääbo (; born 20 April 1955) is a Swedish geneticist and Nobel Laureate who specialises in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. In 1997, he ...

decoded the

gene. Slon visited the

Denisova Cave Denisova Cave () is a cave in the Altai Mountains, Bashelaksky Range of the Altai Mountains in Siberia, Russia. It is widely known for having provided items of great archaeology, paleoarchaeological and paleontology, paleontological interest. ...

during a symposium, where over one thousand bones are excavated a year. As her first project, Slon reported the DNA from the tooth of the fourth Denisova individual ever found on earth. She also co-led a team that found Denisovan DNA in excavated dirt as an alternative to finding rare hominin bones. In 2018, Slon and her colleagues published the genome of Denny, a hybrid hominin. DNA was extracted from a

hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...

bone found in a

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

layer. Using genetic analysis and radiocarbon dating, the hominin was identified as a girl born more than 50,000 years ago to a

mother and a

father. The work was covered in

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

EurekAlert! The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

and

Archaeology magazine ''Archaeology'' is a bimonthly magazine for the general public, published by the Archaeological Institute of America. The institute also publishes the professional ''American Journal of Archaeology The ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA), ...

. Slon was selected as one of

in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slon, Viviane Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Nationality missing Women paleontologists Paleoanthropologists Max Planck Society alumni American anthropologists American women anthropologists