Where Denisovans Lived: Mostly in Asia It Seems | Early European History And Religion

Home | Category: Neanderthals, Denisovans and Modern Humans / Neanderthals, Denisovans and Modern Human

DENISOVANS

Denisova cave location

Denisovans are an extinct group of hominins who coexisted with the Neanderthals and modern humans around 30,000 to 50,000 years ago and originated at least 200,000 years ago. Not much is known about them other than what can be gleaned from their DNA and a few rare fossils. Scientists first learned of their existence from an incomplete finger bone and two molars discovered in the Denisova Cave in the the Altai region — where Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Russia all come together. The finger bone and two molars have been dated by some to 80,000 years ago, but are generally placed in the 30,000 to 50,000 year old range.

The existence of Denisovans was unknown until the tip of a finger bone about 40,000 years old was found in 2010. Three molars have been found at that site. A partial Denisovan jawbone from about 160,000 years ago subsequently was discovered in a Tibetan cave. A Denisovan tooth was later found in Laos [Source: Will Dunham, Reuters, May 18, 2022]

Denisovans and Neanderthals appear to have the same common ancestor, but both are genetically distinct from one another. Neanderthal and Denisovan are believed to have split apart between 400,000 to 500,000 years ago. Humans and Neanderthals divided into separate groups as far back as 765,000 years ago. Denisovans and Neanderthals ultimately disappeared – perhaps because their lineages were absorbed by modern humans.

Denisovans were discovered when DNA markers found by scientists in the finger and molar fossils didn't match those of modern humans or Neanderthal. Researchers gave the new humans the name Denisovans, after the place the place the fossils were discovered. Analysis of the Denisovan genome showed that Denisovans interbred with modern humans – about five per cent of the DNA of native Papua New Guineans and Australians and 0.2 per cent of the DNA of Asians and Native Americans are Denisovan.

Denisova Cave

Denisova Cave

Jamie Shreeve wrote in National Geographic: “In the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia, some 200 miles from where Russia touches Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan, nestled under a rock face about 30 yards above a little river called the Anuy, there is a cave called Denisova. It has long attracted visitors. The name comes from that of a hermit, Denis, who is said to have lived there in the 18th century. Long before that, Neolithic and later Turkic pastoralists took shelter in the cave, gathering their herds around them to ride out the Siberian winters. [Source: Jamie Shreeve, National Geographic, July 2013 +]

“In the back of the cave is a small side chamber, and it was there that a young Russian archaeologist named Alexander Tsybankov was digging one day in July 2008, in deposits believed to be 30,000 to 50,000 years old, when he came upon a tiny piece of bone. It was hardly promising: a rough nubbin about the size and shape of a pebble you might shake out of your shoe...The bone preserved just enough anatomy for the paleontologist to identify it as a chip from a primate fingertip—specifically the part that faces the last joint in the pinkie. Since there is no evidence for primates other than humans in Siberia 30,000 to 50,000 years ago—no apes or monkeys—the fossil was presumably from some kind of human. Judging by the incompletely fused joint surface, the human in question had died young, perhaps as young as eight years old. +\

”###Denisovans and Other Hominins in Asia

Prof Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum told The Telegraph: "The Denisovans are mysterious because we still mainly know them from their ancient DNA and the genetic traces they have left in people today through ancient interbreeding. “And while we do have some incomplete fossils of Denisovans from Siberia and the Tibetan plateau of China, there are seemingly none from Island South East Asia and Australasia where we might expect to find them, given that's where the largest traces of their DNA are found today. [Source: Helena Horton, The Telegraph, March 22, 2021]

According to Reuters: Genome studies have shown that our species, Homo sapiens, interbred with Denisovans as recently as 30,000 years ago. As a result, some modern people share about 5 percent of their DNA with Denisovans including indigenous populations in Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Philippines, with smaller DNA percentages among the broader Southeast Asian populations. The discovery of the molar in Laos "is particularly important as it is the first direct evidence of the presence of Denisovans in Southeast Asia," Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre Director and study co-author Eske Willerslev said. [Source: Will Dunham, Reuters, May 18, 2022]

A common ancestor to Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens is thought to have lived in Africa 700,000 to 500,000 years ago, with a branch that led to Denisovans and Neanderthals splitting off 470,000 to 380,000 years ago. Homo sapiens first emerged in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, then spread worldwide. By 200,000 years ago, four different archaic human species inhabited Asia including the Denisovans, Homo erectus, and diminutive island-dwelling peoples called Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis. Our species then joined the fray.

Denisovan mandible from Tibet

Denisovans in Tibet, 160,000 Years Ago

In 1980, a Buddhist monk uncovered a mandible in Baishiya Karst Cave, more than 3,050 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau. The specimen has been dated to 160,000 years ago, and analysis of proteins from its teeth indicates that it belonged to a member of the hominin species known as Denisovans.[Source: Lydia Pyne, Archaeology magazine, January-February 2020]

Before the discovery in Tibet, Denisovans were previously known only through fragmentary remains of several individuals, all of which were found in southern Siberia’s Denisova Cave, which is just 700 meters (2,300 feet) above sea level and almost 2,815 kilometers (1,750 miles) northwest of Baishiya Karst Cave. “This mandible reveals that Denisovans were geographically distributed much more widely and at higher altitude than we previously thought,” says archaeologist Dongju Zhang of Lanzhou University.

Initially, scientists couldn't detect any DNA in the jawbone fossil, and without genetic proof, there was no way to be sure who the bone came from. But in February 2020, researchers returned to Baishiya Karst and were finally able to collect ancient DNA — not from bones, but from the cave floor itself. Their findings, published in the journal Science, showed that the jawbone did indeed come from a Denisovan. [Source: Aylin Woodward, Business Insider, December 9, 2020]

Denisovans in Laos in 150,000 Years Ago

In May 2022, scientists announced they had found a molar belonging to a young Denisovan girl in cave Tam Ngu Hao 2, also known as Cobra Cave, in the Annamite Mountains in northeastern Laos. Denisovans are an extinct group of hominins who coexisted with the Neanderthals and modern humans around 30,000 to 50,000 years ago and originated at least 200,000 years ago. They are more closely related to Neanderthals than modern humans and interbred with both species

Denisovan tooth from Laos

The tooth, dated to between 164,000 and 131,000 years old, belonged to a girl about 4-6 years old has revealed the Denisovan’s resourcefulness in adapting to both tropical and cold climates. The only other known Denisovan fossils are a few teeth and bone fossils from a single site in Siberia and one in the Himalayas. The humid Laotian conditions meant ancient DNA was not preserved in the molar, unlike other Denisovan remains. The researchers determined it was Denisovan based on its shape — short and heavily wrinkled — and enamel characteristics. Ancient proteins indicated the molar came from a girl. "This is the first time that a Denisovan has been found in a warm region," said paleoanthropologist Fabrice Demeter of the University of Copenhagen's Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications "It means that they were adapted to opposite environments, from cold and high altitude to warm and low altitude regions. In this regard, they were like us, modern humans," Demeter added. [Source: Will Dunham, Reuters, May 18, 2022]

The Laotian cave is located about 3,800 kilometers (2,400 miles) from the Siberian cave, where the first Denisovan fossils were found. "We would like to know a great deal more about Denisovans. But I think it's important to know that just like the Neanderthals were known from Western Europe and the Near East, the Denisovans were a similar and closely related species that was found across a huge part of Asia," University of Illinois paleoanthropologist and study co-author Laura Shackelford said. "Unfortunately, we know very little about what they looked like since there are so few fossils available," Shackelford said, noting that Denisovans probably shared some Neanderthal facial and dental traits.

Scientists have been searching in northeastern Laos for decades for prehistoric human remains. The cave bearing the tooth was situated near another where 70,000-year-old Homo sapiens remains were found. The girl's molar was embedded in sedimentary rock called breccia on a cave wall also containing bone fragments and teeth from animals including ancient rhinos and elephants. "We did not expect to actually find a Denisovan tooth in Laos," Demeter said.

DNA Says Denisovans Roamed Across Asia

Dali Man, from China, possibly Denisovan

Denisovans disappeared about 50,000 years ago, but their DNA can be found in the genes of modern humans across east Asia, Russia, and some Pacific islands. Up to five percent of modern Papua New Guinea residents' DNA shows their prehistoric ancestors interbred with Denisovans. In 2010, AP reported, The Denisovan DNA code indicates they "roamed far from the cave that holds its only known remains. By comparing the DNA to that of modern populations, scientists found evidence that these "Denisovans" from more than 30,000 years ago ranged all across Asia. They apparently interbred with the ancestors of people now living in Melanesia, a group of islands northeast of Australia. There's no sign that Denisovans mingled with the ancestors of people now living in Eurasia, which made the connection between Siberia and distant Melanesia quite a shock."Source: Malcolm Ritter, AP, December 22, 2010 ***]

"Scientists found evidence that in the genomes of people now living in Melanesia, about 5 percent of their DNA can be traced to Denisovans, a sign of ancient interbreeding that took researchers by surprise. "We thought it was a mistake when we first saw it," Reich said. "But it's real." And that suggests Denisovans once ranged widely across Asia, he said. Somehow, they or their ancestors had to encounter anatomically modern humans who started leaving Africa some 55,000 years ago and reached New Guinea by some 45,000 years ago. It seems implausible that this journey took a detour through southern Siberia without leaving a genetic legacy in other Eurasian populations, Reich said. It makes more sense that this encounter happened much farther south, indicating Denisovans ranged throughout Asia, over thousands of miles and different climate zones, he said. ***

Todd Disotell of New York University told AP he and colleagues were "blown away" by the unexpected Melanesia finding, with its implication for where Denisovans lived. "Clearly they had to have been very widespread in Asia," and DNA sampling of isolated Asian populations might turn up more of their genetic legacy, he said. Rick Potts, director of the human origins program at the Smithsonian Institution, said the new work greatly strengthens the case that Denisovans differed from Neanderthals and modern humans. Still, they may not be a new species, because they might represent a creature already known from fossils but which didn't leave any DNA to compare, such as a late-surviving Homo heidelbergensis, he said. ***

Potts also said the Melanesia finding could mean that the Melanesians and the Denisovans didn't intermix, but simply happened to retain ancestral DNA sequences that had been lost in other populations sampled in the study. But he stressed he doesn't know if that's a better explanation than the one offered by the authors. "I am excited about this paper (because) it just throws so much out there for contemplation that is testable," Potts said. "And that's good science." ***

Denisovans Roamed Across Large Swaths of Asia

Denisovans show as much genetic diversity as Neanderthals, which suggests they ranged across a large area. New DNA evidence appears to indicate they likely ranged across much of Asia for tens of thousands of years and weren't just a small, isolated population, researchers wrote in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Source: CBC News, November 16, 2015 -]

secondary human expansion

CBC News reported: Scientists have analyzed two molars found in Denisova cave and confirmed that they belong to two adult male Denisovans. On the teeth, University of Toronto researcher Bence Viola, a co-author of the paper, said, at first "I thought, 'Oh, that actually looks very human-like.” But when the rest of the tooth was found, he began to have doubts. "I thought, 'This is too big. This doesn't look human-like at all...In its size, it's comparable to hominins that lived two or three million years ago…but the age of it shows that it's very recent," While individuals have different tooth sizes, finding two teeth this large from two different, unrelated individuals suggests "the whole group probably had very large and weird teeth." They also likely had a very large and robust jaw to support such long tooth roots. But aside from that, we know nothing about what they looked like. -

“Differences in the DNA in the two teeth, along with the layers of the cave in which they were found, suggest that the two men lived about 60,000 years apart. The more recent would have lived around 50,000 to 70,000 years ago, while the earlier would have lived up to 130,000 years ago. The Denisovans also show as much genetic diversity as Neanderthals that lived as far away from one another as Spain and Siberia, said Paabo, another co-author of the paper."It just sort of in general would indicate they have a long history where they had substantial numbers of individuals in the population." -

“If that's the case, why have we never found any other Denisovan remains outside the Denisova cave? Viola suspects other Denisovan remains have already been uncovered in China – they just haven't been recognized as Denisovan yet. "I'm really convinced," he said. "The genetic data shows that these guys were spread over large parts of Asia, so we must have them." -

Denisovans, Modern Humans and Hominid Migrations in Asia

Jamie Shreeve wrote in National Geographic: “Although the Denisovans’ genome showed that they were more closely related to the Neanderthals, they too had left their mark on us. But the geographic pattern of that legacy was odd. When the researchers compared the Denisovan genome with those of various modern human populations, they found no trace of it in Russia or nearby China, or anywhere else, for that matter—except in the genomes of New Guineans, other people from islands in Melanesia, and Australian Aborigines. On average their genomes are about 5 percent Denisovan. Negritos in the Philippines have as much as 2.5 percent. [Source: Jamie Shreeve, National Geographic, July 2013 +]

secondary human expansion

“Putting all the data together, Pääbo and his colleagues came up with a scenario to explain what might have occurred. Sometime before 500,000 years ago, probably in Africa, the ancestors of modern humans split off from the lineage that would give rise to Neanderthals and Denisovans. (The most likely progenitor of all three types was a species called Homo heidelbergensis.) While our ancestors stayed in Africa, the common ancestor of Neanderthals and Denisovans migrated out. Those two lineages later diverged, with the Neanderthals initially moving west into Europe and the Denisovans spreading east, perhaps eventually populating large parts of the Asian continent. +\

“Later still, when modern humans ventured out of Africa themselves, they encountered Neanderthals in the Middle East and Central Asia, and to a limited extent interbred with them. According to evidence presented by David Reich at the Denisova symposium, this mixing most likely occurred between 67,000 and 46,000 years ago. One population of modern humans then continued east into Southeast Asia, where, sometime around 40,000 years ago, they encountered Denisovans. The moderns interbred with them as well and then moved into Australasia, carrying Denisovan DNA. +\

“This scenario might explain why the only evidence so far that the Denisovans even existed is three fossils from a cave in Siberia and a 5 percent stake in the genomes of people living today thousands of miles to the southeast. But it left a lot of questions unanswered. If the Denisovans were so widespread, why was there no trace of them in the genomes of Han Chinese or of any other Asian people between Siberia and Melanesia? Why had they left no mark in the archaeological record—no distinctive tools, say? Who were they really? What did they look like? “Clearly we need much more work,” Pääbo acknowledged. +\

“The best of all possible developments would be to find Denisovan DNA in a skull or other fossil with distinctive morphological features, one that could serve as a Rosetta stone for reexamining the whole fossil record of Asia. There are some intriguing candidates, most from China, and three skulls in particular, dated between 250,000 and 100,000 years ago. Pääbo is working closely with scientists at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and has set up a DNA testing lab there. Unfortunately DNA does not preserve well in warmer climates. To date, no other fossil has been identified as Denisovan by the only way Denisovans can be known: their DNA.” +\

“One possibility is that the bone belonged to a member of a group that was ancestral to both Neanderthals and Denisovans and that Neanderthals acquired different mitochondrial DNA after the two groups diverged.“Another alternative is that this ancestral group actually interbred with something much older, something like Homo erectus, and obtained its mitochondrial DNA from them,” Paabo said. [Source: Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2013]

Denisovans and Modern Humans Appear to Overlapped 50,000 Years Ago in New Guinea and Indonesia

Average frequency of East Asian and Papuan ancestry components among selected ethnic groups

Genomic evidence shows that Denisovans and modern humans may have overlapped at least 50,000 years ago in Wallacea — chain of islands, now mainly in Indonesia — as the humans migrated into Sahul, which includes modern day Australia and New Guinea Kati Moore, wrote in Natural History magazine: By around 37,000 years ago, the people of Sahul — Papuan peoples of New Guinea and Aboriginal Australians — had become distinct from their mainland Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherer ancestors. New analyses of a 7,000-year-old skeleton found at Leang Panninge in Sulawesi, Indonesia, suggests that a previously unknown population may have also split off from these groups at a similar time. [Source: Kati Moore, Natural History magazine, November 2021]

The remains were found and analyzed by an international team led by biochemists Selina Carlhoff and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, geneticist Cosimo Posth of the University of Tübingen, Germany, and archaeologists Akin Duli of Hasanuddin University in Indonesia and Adam Brumm of Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

Morphological analyses of the nearly complete skeleton determined that the remains belonged to a seventeen — or eighteen-year-old female. Genetic material was collected from the petrous bone, a part of the skull that houses the inner ear. The researchers found that this individual was genetically similar to Papuans and Aboriginal Australians. However, while the genomes of individuals of those two lineages include about 2.9 percent Denisovan ancestry, the individual found at Leang Panninge had less; only an estimated 2.2 percent.

Denisovans were a group of archaic humans who mixed with ancestors of modern humans, though the exact timing and location of this interaction is unknown. The results of this study suggest that Denisovans mixed with the Leang Panninge lineage at the same time as the Papuan and Aboriginal lineages. Thus, genetic exchange between these groups could have occurred in the area where the remains were found, a group of islands between Borneo and Australia known as Wallacea.

Because the Leang Panninge genome included less Denisovan ancestry than its closest relations, the researchers hypothesize that the Leang Panninge peoples also mixed with other groups from eastern Asia after splitting off from Papuan and Aboriginal Australians. Further discoveries of humans from this time period are needed to better understand the genetic history of the hunter-gatherers and their migrations. (Nature)

Genetically-Isolated Papua New Guineans Have Disease-Fighting Denisovan Genes

Papua New Guineans have been genetically isolated for thousands of years, They carry unique genes that help their immune system fight off infection — and some of those genes come from Denisovans. The study that revealed this also found that highland Papuans and lowland Papuans evolved different mutations to help them adapt to their different environments. "New Guineans are unique as they have been isolated since they settled in New Guinea more than 50,000 years ago," co-senior study author François-Xavier Ricaut, a biological anthropologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), told Live Science [Source: Emily Cooke, Live Science, May 11, 2024]

According to Live Science, Not only is the predominantly mountainous terrain of the island country particularly challenging, but infectious diseases are also responsible for more than 40 percent of deaths. Locals therefore had to find a biological and cultural strategy to adapt, which means that the population of Papua New Guinea is a "fantastic cocktail" to study genetic adaptation, Ricaut said.

Modern humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea from Africa around 50,000 years ago. There, they interbred with Denisovans who'd been living in Asia for tens of thousands of years. As a result of this ancient interbreeding, Papua New Guineans carry up to 5 percent Denisovan DNA in their genomes.

In the new study, published April 30 in the journal Nature Communications, scientists analyzed the genomes of 54 highlanders from Mount Wilhelm who lived between 7,500 and 8,900 feet (2,300 and 2,700 meters) above sea level, and 74 lowlanders from Daru Island, who lived less than 330 feet (100 m) above sea level. They found that mutations lowlanders probably inherited from Denisovans boosted the number of immune cells in their blood. The highlanders, meanwhile, evolved mutations that raised their red blood cell count, which helps reduce hypoxia at altitude. That's not unusual, as people from several other high-altitude environments have evolved different mutations to combat hypoxia.

The Denisovan gene variants may affect the function of a protein called GBP2 that helps the body fight pathogens that are only found at lower altitudes, such as the parasites that cause malaria. These genes may therefore have been selected during evolution to help people fight off infection at lower altitudes where pathogens are rife, the team said.

Going forward, the team wants to uncover how these mutations bring about changes in the blood of Papua New Guineans, Ricault said. To decipher this, they'll need to investigate how these mutations impact the activity of the genes in which they are found.

Did Denisovans Help Large Animals in Asia?

Ancient humans saved giant pigs and Komodo dragons from extinction, scientists at the Natural History Museum theorized. Helena Horton wrote in The Telegraph: Researchers have been long searching for fossil evidence of Denisovians. Parts of the world, such as Australia, where there were not thought to have been these ancient humans, lost their megafauna when modern-day man landed. [Source: Helena Horton, The Telegraph, March 22, 2021]

This graph shows a Eurasian wide Principal components analysis (PCA), a statistical method commonly used in population genetics to identify structure in the distribution of genetic variation across geographical location and ethnic background

“Prof Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum said they had not found any fossils of the Denisovans in Australia — where megafauna went extinct — but there were some in other areas including Indonesian islands, Tibet and Siberia, where there is direct of evidence of Denisovan presence. Large animals that survive today in these regions include the Komodo Dragon, the Babirusa (a pig with remarkable upturned tusks), and the Tamaraw and Anoas (small wild buffalos).

“In analysing where this was found, they have discovered that large animals which evolved alongside early humans had a genetic advantage over those which didn't. Scientists believe that this is because while our early ancestors learned to hunt, megafauna including Komodo dragons developed and selected for defence mechanisms which helped them survive.

Prof Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum told The Telegraph: "We re-examined the fossil record of the region and we conclude that the known fossils assigned to Homo erectus (from Java), Homo floresiensis (Flores) and Homo luzonensis (Philippines) represent much more ancient lineages than the Denisovans, with a deep history in the region — so they cannot be the elusive 'southern Denisovans' who would have been more closely related to us and the Neanderthals."[Source: Helena Horton, The Telegraph, March 22, 2021] [Source: Helena Horton, The Telegraph, March 22, 2021]

“Prof Kristofer Helgen, who led the research explained that living among the ancient humans likelt helped the animals survive. “He said: "A possible implication here is that, soon after modern human arrival, all land animals larger than people became extinct in Australia and New Guinea, but not islands like Flores, the Philippines, and Sulawesi, because the latter islands have a very long record of human occupation by a human species before modern humans arrived in the region, making wildlife in these islands perhaps behaviorally more used to hunting by a pre-sapiens hominin".

Why is 400,000-Year-Old DNA from Spain Linked to 50,000-Year-Old Asia-Based Denisovans?

The oldest known human DNA — from the bone of a hominin living in what is now the Sima de los Huesos in Northern Spain, dated to approximately 400,000 years ago — appears to have belong to an unknown hominin, presumably a common ancestor of Denisovans and Neanderthals but with closer links to Denisovans than Neanderthals. Scientists detailed their findings on this in the December 5, 2013 issue of the journal Nature. [Source: Charles Q. Choi, Live Science, December 4, 2013 \=]

Charles Q. Choi of Live Science wrote: “The researchers suggest a number of possible explanations for these findings. First, this specimen may have been closely related to the ancestors of Denisovans. However, this seems unlikely, since the presence of Denisovans in western Europe would suggest an extensive overlap of territory with Neanderthal ancestors, raising the question of how both groups could diverge genetically while overlapping in range. Moreover, the one known Denisovan tooth is significantly different from teeth seen at the Pit of Bones. [Source: Charles Q. Choi, Live Science, December 4, 2013 \=]

“Second, the Sima de los Huesos humans may be related to the ancestors of both Neanderthals and Denisovans. The researchers consider this plausible given the fossil's age, but they would then have to explain how two very different mitochondrial DNA lineages stemmed from one group, one leading to Denisovans, the other to Neanderthals. \=\

Denisovan spread and evolution

“Third, the humans found at the Sima de los Huesos may be a lineage distinct from both Neanderthals and Denisovans that later perhaps contributed mitochondrial DNA to Denisovans. However, this suggests this group was somehow both distinct from Neanderthals but also independently evolved several Neanderthal-like skeletal features. \=\

“Fourth, the investigators suggest a currently unknown human lineage brought Denisovan-like mitochondrial DNA into the Pit of Bones region, and possibly also to the Denisovans in Asia. "The story of human evolution is not as simple as we would have liked to think," Meyer said. "This result is a big question mark. In some sense, we know less about the origins of Neanderthals and Denisovans than we knew before."” \=\

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024