Denisovans

In Context 

• Scientists have long assumed that Southeast Asia was once home to Denisovans.
  • The first physical evidence been verified recently. 

Who were the Denisovans?

• Denisovans are ancient cousins of modern humans about whom much remains to be known.
• They lived lakhs of years ago, coexisting with Neanderthals in some regions, and interbreeding with early modern humans in some cases. 
  • Neanderthals are adapted to Western Eurasia and to cold regions, whereas Denisovans originated from Far East Asia with certainly less favourable climate conditions to preserve the bones.
• They were first identified as a separate species in 2010, following the discovery of a fragment of a finger bone and two teeth, dating back to about 40,000 years ago, in the Denisovan Cave in Siberia.
•  In 2019, another fossil, a mandible with a set of teeth — was found on the Tibetan plateau.
  • Traces of Denisovan DNA have been identified in certain indigenous groups in the Philippines and other regions. 
• Denisovan fossils are so rare because their population was smaller than that of Neanderthals and  there are certainly a number of fossils attributed to the ‘archaic humans’(a group we put fossils into when we don’t really know where to put them)

Recent Findings 

• The wisdom tooth of a child, most likely a girl, was discovered in a cave in Laos, where it was likely deposited 13,000 to 16,000 years ago.
• They extracted the proteins that could tell us the individual belonged to genus Homo and was female. 
• The morphology of the crown tells us it was a young individual of 5-7 years old.
• The tooth is closer to Neanderthals and Denisovans. 
  • But as Neanderthals are only adapted to Western Europe and to cold regions, the best option is that the tooth is Denisovan

Why is the finding important?

• It was known that Denisovans were only found in cold and high-altitude regions such as in Siberia and the Himalayas. 
• This  discovery proves that they were also adapted to a warm environment.
• Meaning that they had very large flexibility of adaptation

Source:IE