Denisovan Skull Fragments Discovered

CLEVELAND, OHIO—Science News reports that two pieces of a Denisovan skull have been recovered from Siberia’s Denisova Cave. Based on sediment analysis, the human relative is thought to have lived in the cave periodically between 300,000 and 50,000 years ago. Paleoanthropologist Bence Viola of the University of Toronto said mitochondrial DNA extracted from the surprisingly thick pieces of braincase was used to confirm that they belonged to a Denisovan. Viola and his colleagues also compared digital reconstructions of the skull fragments with the corresponding parts of modern-human skulls from different time periods, and skulls of other Homo species, including Neanderthals. (Neanderthals also lived in Denisova Cave after about 200,000 years ago.) Some of the fragments’ features were similar to Neanderthal skulls and to a 430,000-year-old Homo species found in Spain, which had Denisovan ancestry, Viola explained. To read about evidence of interbreeding between Denisovans and Neanderthals, go to “Hominin Hybrid.”