purescience_news4d ago
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else? #Science #Biology #Genetics #Denisovan #AncientHumanSkull #Paleoanthropology
https://purescience.news/article?id=959021
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else?

A fossil skull from China that made headlines last week may or may not be a million years old, but it's probably closely related to Denisovans. The fossil skull, dubbed Yunxian 2, is one of three unearthed from a terrace alongside the Han River, in central China, in a layer of river sediment somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million years old. Archaeologists originally identified them as Homo erectus, but Hanjiang Normal University paleoanthropologist Xiaobo Feng and his colleagues’ recent digital reconstruction of Yunxian 2 suggests the skulls may actually have belonged to someone a lot more similar to us: a hominin group defined as a species called Homo longi or a Denisovan, depending on who’s doing the naming. The recent paper adds fuel—and a new twist—to that debate. And the whole thing may hinge on a third skull from the same site, still waiting to be published. Read full article Comments

Pure Science News
purescience_news4d ago
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else? #Science #Biology #Genetics #Denisovan #AncientHumanSkull #Paleoanthropology
https://purescience.news/article?id=959021
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else?

A fossil skull from China that made headlines last week may or may not be a million years old, but it's probably closely related to Denisovans. The fossil skull, dubbed Yunxian 2, is one of three unearthed from a terrace alongside the Han River, in central China, in a layer of river sediment somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million years old. Archaeologists originally identified them as Homo erectus, but Hanjiang Normal University paleoanthropologist Xiaobo Feng and his colleagues’ recent digital reconstruction of Yunxian 2 suggests the skulls may actually have belonged to someone a lot more similar to us: a hominin group defined as a species called Homo longi or a Denisovan, depending on who’s doing the naming. The recent paper adds fuel—and a new twist—to that debate. And the whole thing may hinge on a third skull from the same site, still waiting to be published. Read full article Comments

Pure Science News
purescience_news4d ago
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else? #Science #Biology #Genetics #Denisovan #AncientHumanSkull #Paleoanthropology
https://purescience.news/article?id=959021
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else?

A fossil skull from China that made headlines last week may or may not be a million years old, but it's probably closely related to Denisovans. The fossil skull, dubbed Yunxian 2, is one of three unearthed from a terrace alongside the Han River, in central China, in a layer of river sediment somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million years old. Archaeologists originally identified them as Homo erectus, but Hanjiang Normal University paleoanthropologist Xiaobo Feng and his colleagues’ recent digital reconstruction of Yunxian 2 suggests the skulls may actually have belonged to someone a lot more similar to us: a hominin group defined as a species called Homo longi or a Denisovan, depending on who’s doing the naming. The recent paper adds fuel—and a new twist—to that debate. And the whole thing may hinge on a third skull from the same site, still waiting to be published. Read full article Comments

Pure Science News
purescience_news4d ago
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else? #Science #Biology #Genetics #Denisovan #AncientHumanSkull #Paleoanthropology
https://purescience.news/article?id=959021
Is the “million-year-old” skull from China a Denisovan or something else?

A fossil skull from China that made headlines last week may or may not be a million years old, but it's probably closely related to Denisovans. The fossil skull, dubbed Yunxian 2, is one of three unearthed from a terrace alongside the Han River, in central China, in a layer of river sediment somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million years old. Archaeologists originally identified them as Homo erectus, but Hanjiang Normal University paleoanthropologist Xiaobo Feng and his colleagues’ recent digital reconstruction of Yunxian 2 suggests the skulls may actually have belonged to someone a lot more similar to us: a hominin group defined as a species called Homo longi or a Denisovan, depending on who’s doing the naming. The recent paper adds fuel—and a new twist—to that debate. And the whole thing may hinge on a third skull from the same site, still waiting to be published. Read full article Comments

Pure Science News
qurlyjoeFeb 21
#FunFact: Mammals indigenous to the high Tibetan plateau all have similar mutations to the same EPAS-1 “gene”. Horses, yaks, pigs, dogs, and humans all evolved convergently in a way that provides larger and more red blood cells that carry more hemoglobin than do related animals at lower elevations. (Horses did it best.) The human mutation originated in the #Denisovan populations in the Altai region of eurasia ≈80KYA.
From “Horses”, by Ludovic Orlando. #evolution #genetics #science #horses
Brett WhittyDec 4

The #Australian Aboriginal population has the highest % of #Denisovan ancestry amongst extant #Human groups.

(Going off memory here of the most recent publications I'd read.)

The full story of human groups and human migration is a much larger and more complicated story than the average person can even imagine.

Source: ScienceAlert
https://share.google/1WdSQ2pi9JIWfZ4nV

Archaeology News Nov 25

Ancient Jomon DNA reveals a lost East Asian lineage with the lowest Denisovan ancestry in the region

A new genetic study is rewriting what researchers know about early human migrations in East Asia, showing that the prehistoric Jomon people of Japan carried far less Denisovan DNA than any other ancient or modern population in the region...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/11/jomon-dna-reveals-low-denisovan-ancestry/

Follow us @archaeology

#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #Denisovan #jomon #humanevolution #anthropology

Radical AnthropologyNov 5

Tracking #Denisovan ancestry in East #Asian populations with different histories of contact

https://www.mpg.de/25634317/1030-evan-some-early-east-asians-did-not-meet-denisovans-150495-x

Some early East Asians did not meet Denisovans

Researchers reveal the dynamics of Denisovan ancestry in Eurasians over the past 40,000 years.

SPAAM-communityNov 3
A new study links the Harbin cranium to Denisovans using DNA hidden in dental calculus. 🦷🧬 The mtDNA connects to Siberian lineages and suggests Denisovans spread widely across Pleistocene Asia. #MetagenomicsMonday #SPAAM #aDNA #Denisovan #archaic #mtDNA #calculus
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.040
Show threadmichaelOct 6
my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 19: A #Denisovan skull identified this year reveals the face of our close relatives (comparable to #Neanderthals). https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-denisovan-skull.html #science #anthropology #fossils #humans #genome #palaeoanthropology #china
a Denisovan skull

I completely missed the memo when this happened but two separate molecular studies published earlier this year convincingly show that a know...