Denisovan Fossils Identified

BEIJING, CHINA—Phys.org reports that a new analysis of a skull fragment and jaw fragment found in northern China’s Xujiayao archaeological site in the 1970s suggests that the fossils belonged to Denisovans. Qiaomei Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and her colleagues identified 18 proteins in the fossils. One of the collagen variants is found only in Denisovans, and not in Neanderthals nor modern humans. Then the researchers evaluated the shapes of the fossils and used 3D computer models to reconstruct the bones. These images were compared with fossils from Neanderthals, modern humans, and other hominins. The study suggests that Denisovans traits combined the features of ancestral hominins, Neanderthals, and other later human species. In particular, Denisovans are thought to have had low, relatively flat skulls with thick bones, prominent brow ridges, and flattened facial features. They are likely to have lived across East Asia, so other fossils from the region may belong to this Denisovan lineage, the researchers concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature. For more, go to “Denisovan DNA.”