Archaeologists Just Found the Most Complete Denisovan Record Yet-and It Goes Back 190,000 Years

Neanderthals and Denisovans are among our closest extinct human relatives, but there’s still much we don’t know about this ancient relative of ours-but new research may help us take the next step. Today, research teams primarily based in China released two papers in Nature detailing the discovery and analysis of Denisovan remains from Bianfu Cave, Yunnan, in southwestern China. Together, the results shed much-awaited light on the geographic distribution of Denisovans, as well as their biology, diet, and societal practices. The discovery also strengthens previous studies that found genetic connections between present-day humans and Denisovans in Southeast Asia. Importantly, the site demonstrates one of the longest, most consistent records of Denisovan occupation, greatly advancing our understanding of our long-lost relatives. “Both papers are very welcome because they provide important new information on Denisovans-not only regarding new fossils and evolutionary anatomy, but also their use and production of stone tools and their hunting practices,” Antonio Rosas, a paleoanthropologist at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Spain, told Gizmodo. Rosas was not involved in either study. The elusive cousin Again, compared to Neanderthals, Denisovans are a relatively recent addition to the lineage of human ancestors. According to a blog by the U.K. Natural History Museum (NHM), the first fossil remains recognized as Denisovan-a tiny hand bone and some teeth-were discovered in 2008 in Russia’s Denisova Cave. The DNA results came two years later, which indicated these fossils belonged to an “entirely unknown species of ancient human,” as per the NHM blog. These findings were nothing short of revolutionary. Revisits of previous fossils repainted them as potentially Denisovan. Then there were the newer discoveries, notably a skull from Harbin, China, in 2021, that further solidified the idea that Denisovans, as a species, established genetically distinct populations from Neanderthals in modern-day Asia. Incredulous encounters For the latest studies, the team, including paleogeneticist Qiamei Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, studied more than 60,000 bone fragments in Bianfu Cave. In a written statement to the media, Fu explained that the excursion began as a local ecological restoration project in 2019, which turned up four hominin teeth, an arm bone, and two skull fragments. The evidence strongly suggested a lengthy hominin occupation of the cave. However, it was only after proteomic sequencing-studying protein molecules-and data analysis that the team began to suspect it was looking at Denisovan remains, Fu said. The proteomic analysis in particular revealed that the hominin fossils of Bianfu Cave had a strong statistical connection with those found in Denisova, he added. “Overall, I found the analyses quite compelling,” Rosas told Gizmodo. “It supports and expands previous evidence concerning the geographic range of Denisovans. It also significantly increases our knowledge of the anatomy and culture of this lineage.” Revisiting Denisovan life The first paper, on the proteomic analysis of the Denisovan remains, dated the fossils as approximately 167,000 to 134,000 years old. The second paper, on the subsistence strategies of Denisovans, added that the collection of evidence for human occupation appears to be from between 190,000 and 70,000 years ago. This included unmodified bone tools, stone artifacts, and traces of animals and pollen. The level of sophistication in these hunting tools resembled that of Neanderthals, whereas the organic remains indicated that the Denisovans lived in a forest-like environment populated by conifers. “This site is significant because it brings fossils, technology, subsistence, and environment together in one long, stratified record,” Bo Li, a study co-author and an archaeologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia, said in a university statement. “It moves us beyond isolated discoveries and genetically inferred distributions, showing how Denisovans actually adapted to their surroundings. It is evidence of just how diverse the technology of ancient human populations in eastern Asia really was.” Bianfu Cave currently offers the clearest snapshot yet of Denisovans’ daily lives, providing a picture of hunters, toolmakers, and forest dwellers-at least at this particular location. There’s still much to learn about the Denisovans, but each new discovery is bringing them into sharper focus.