- Bone remains found in Baishiya Karst Cave, a Tibetan cave 3,280 meters above sea level, suggest an ancient group of humans, the Denisovans, survived there for many millennia, according to a study published in Nature.
- Denisovans, an extinct species of ancient human, coexisted and interbred with Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
- Archaeologists have discovered only a few Denisovan remains, and their extinction timeline remains unclear.
- The scientists identified one rib bone from a new Denisovan individual, dated between 48,000 and 32,000 years ago, during the time modern humans were spreading across Eurasia.
- This suggests Denisovans lived through both cold periods and a warmer interglacial period between the Middle and Late Pleistocene eras.
- The research team examined over 2,500 bones from Baishiya Karst Cave on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau, one of only two known Denisovan habitats.
- Using a novel method exploiting differences in bone collagen, the team determined most bones belonged to blue sheep (bharal), wild yaks, equids, extinct woolly rhinos, and spotted hyenas, as well as small mammals like marmots and birds.
- They identified that Denisovans hunted, butchered, and ate various animal species.
- Detailed analysis of the bone surfaces shows that Denisovans removed meat and bone marrow and used the bones to produce tools.
Dig Deeper: Go through PYQ on Denisovan species of humans.
