Taking a chance
This all started when a research team found a tiny bone fragment in a cave in Siberia. At that time, they did not even realize that it was hominin. Hominin is a term used for all species that were regarded as human.
Source: Atlantic Mirror
That particular bone was not given much thought and was set aside for years. Then, researcher Viviane Slon had her hands on the said bone and tried to see if she could extract DNA from it. What she found later on in the German laboratory may change everything we know about ancient humans.