Denisovans: new fossils reveal details about ancient humans
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Archaeologists in Yunnan province, southwestern China, uncovered rare Denisovan fossils alongside stone tools, offering new insights into the lives of these ancient people.
For years, scientists knew little about the Denisovans, an Asian group related to Neanderthals. Researchers first identified them in 2010 through their DNA, which Svante Paabo extracted from a finger bone found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia.
Since then, fragments of Denisovan remains have appeared across Asia, including a complete crâne, nicknamed “Dragon Man”, discovered near Harbin in northern China. This recent discovery in the Bianfu Cave is unique because it includes skull fragments and a forearm bone among over one thousand tools made of stone and bone, and the remains of many mammals. These finds provide an unprecedented look at how Denisovans lived.
The Chinese archaeologists publishing their findings in Nature found scrapers, choppers, and percussors, as well as evidence that the Denisovans skillfully hunted deer and buffalo, processing their bones for meat and marrow. Analysis of the skull fragments suggests the Denisovans had thicker skulls more similar to Neanderthals than to Homo sapiens. The forearm bone indicates that, for a similar muscle mass, Denisovans could generate more strength than modern humans.
Though the Denisovans no longer exist as a distinct group, their genetic legacy lives on in populations across Asia, including Tibetans and people native to the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, and researchers continue to study their range.
