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First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans
Posted on 5/2/19 at 5:00 am
Posted on 5/2/19 at 5:00 am
Interesting article from Phys.org
So far, Denisovans were only known from a small collection of fossil fragments from Denisova Cave in Siberia. A research team now describes a 160,000-year-old hominin mandible from Xiahe in China. Using ancient protein analysis, the researchers found that the mandible's owner belonged to a population that was closely related to the Denisovans from Siberia. This population occupied the Tibetan Plateau in the Middle Pleistocene and was adapted to this low-oxygen environment long before Homo sapiens arrived in the region.
Denisovans—an extinct sister group of Neandertals—were discovered in 2010, when a research team led by Svante Pääbo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) sequenced the genome of a fossil finger bone found at Denisova Cave in Russia and showed that it belonged to a hominin group that was genetically distinct from Neandertals. "Traces of Denisovan DNA are found in present-day Asian, Australian and Melanesian populations, suggesting that these ancient hominins may have once been widespread," says Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the Department of Human Evolution at the MPI-EVA. "Yet so far the only fossils representing this ancient hominin group were identified at Denisova Cave."
Posted on 5/2/19 at 5:43 am to Trumansfangs
quote:
Denisovans—an extinct sister group of Neandertals
No wonder they went extinct, they were all ladies!
Posted on 5/2/19 at 8:18 am to Trumansfangs
For a hominid group we know very little about the Denisovans put some vigorous effort into spreading their genes around. You have to tip your hat to a group of people who evidently humped anything remotely humanoid that wandered into their territory.
Posted on 5/2/19 at 9:59 am to Trumansfangs
We’re finally starting to determine some of the make up of the oriental ethnicities. Neandertals, modern humans and now denisovans make up most of their ancestry but there’s still about 4% of their, and our, genes that come from an unknown archaic human.
Posted on 5/2/19 at 11:49 am to Kentucker
Denisovians are a fascinating concept. Human biodiversity is controversial, but interesting for sure.
Posted on 5/2/19 at 5:48 pm to Arksulli
quote:
You have to tip your hat to a group of people who evidently humped anything remotely humanoid that wandered into their territory.
It was Siberia, what you gonna do ?
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