The Denisovans
A whole human population is discovered from a finger bone, and identified entirely by its genome.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 171 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 50 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
In 2010, DNA from a fragment of finger bone in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains revealed a human population distinct from both Neanderthals and modern humans. For years they were known almost solely from genetics — a species defined by its genome before it had a face. They occupied a vast range across Asia, interbred with Neanderthals and with modern humans, and left genetic traces strongest in present-day Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians, including the high-altitude adaptation carried by Tibetans today.