{"id":886618,"date":"2026-09-10T07:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T07:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886618\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T07:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T07:10:19","slug":"trove-of-bones-and-tools-from-mysterious-denisovans-uncovered-in-chinese-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886618\/","title":{"rendered":"Trove of bones and tools from mysterious Denisovans uncovered in Chinese cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

The elusive Denisovans, extinct cousins of modern humans, have only left a few hints of their existence in the world.<\/p>\n

Their DNA persists in some modern human populations such as Indigenous Australians, and a handful of fossils have been uncovered at a few sites across Asia.<\/p>\n

Now, a new trove of fossils and tools has been found in a cave in south-western China.<\/p>\n

The cave, which has since been severely damaged by quarrying activity, yielded seven remains identified as Denisovan, alongside thousands of other bone fragments and tools.<\/p>\n

The discovery is described in two papers published in the journal Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Panel<\/p>\n

Researchers identified four teeth (a,b,c,d), an arm bone (e) and two skull fragments (f and g) had proteins associated with Denisovans. (Supplied: Qijun Ruan et al\/Nature<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bo Li, an archaeologist at the University of Wollongong and co-author on one of the papers<\/a>, said the objects surrounding the Denisovans could allow us to learn more about them.<\/p>\n

“The fossils are directly associated with stone tools, bone tools, animal remains and environmental evidence, allowing us to study Denisovan biology, technology, diet and adaptation together,” Professor Li said.<\/p>\n

Fossils excavated before cave collapse<\/p>\n

Denisovans, which are a close relative of modern Homo sapiens, were first identified from DNA analysis of a single finger bone unearthed in Denisova Cave in Siberia in 2008.<\/p>\n

Since then, a handful of bones and teeth attributed to the mysterious human have been found on the Tibetan Plateau<\/a> in China, Laos<\/a> and Taiwan<\/a> and a skull in north-east China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new batch of fossils was unearthed from Bianfu Cave, in the Chinese province of Yunnan, in 2019.<\/p>\n

“Getting an idea that [Denisovans] were not just isolated hominins living up in Siberia \u2026 is very exciting,” Mike Morley, an archaeologist at Flinders University not involved with the latest discovery, said.<\/p>\n

The cave had to be urgently excavated because nearby engineering work was causing the mountain it was in to collapse.<\/p>\n

The researchers extracted some 60,000 bone fragments and thousands of stone artefacts before the entrance was destroyed and the site rendered inaccessible.<\/p>\n

“Luckily the fossils and cultural materials were saved and now preserved,” Professor Li said.\"Person<\/p>\n

Yunnan, in southwestern China, has been the site of several important archaeological finds in recent years. (Supplied: University of Wollongong)<\/p>\n

The researchers identified a protein signature belonging to Denisovans in seven of the excavated bone fragments: an arm bone, two skull shards and four teeth.<\/p>\n

Dating of sediment layers indicated the fossils were between 134,000 and 167,000 years old, while the cave appeared to have been used from 190,000 until 70,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

Piecing together evidence of Denisovan life<\/p>\n

Professor Morley said objects found around the fossils could tell us about the Denisovans’ lifestyles.<\/p>\n

“This is something we’ve never had a good idea on,” he said.<\/p>\n

Previous Denisovan sites have also been used by Homo sapiens and other early humans, like Neanderthals<\/a>, making it hard to tell what the Denisovans themselves left behind.<\/p>\n

“It really gives us a much better sense of who these people were.”<\/p>\n

Pollen and animal traces around the site suggest the Denisovans lived in a forested area dominated by conifers.<\/p>\n

“The Denisovans at Bianfu Cave lived in a relatively predictable forest or forest-steppe environment and focused on locally available animal resources,” Professor Li said.<\/p>\n

\"Scientist<\/p>\n

Professor Bo Li used luminescence dating to determine the age of fossils and artefacts based on when layers of sediment around them were last exposed to sunlight. (Supplied: University of Wollongong)<\/p>\n

Bones found in the cave carry marks and scratches that imply the Denisovans hunted animals like deer and water buffalo.<\/p>\n

“[This] indicates the animals were brought to the cave or processed there for meat, marrow and grease,” Professor Li said.<\/p>\n

The researchers also found stone and bone tools similar to those used by Neanderthals.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The skull of an ancient human dubbed ‘Dragon Man’ found in north-east China was recently identified as Denisovan. (Wikimedia: Cell Press<\/a>\/CC BY 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Professor Li said it was unlikely Denisovans from other areas would have followed identical lifestyles.<\/p>\n

“The Bianfu Cave provides an important example, but we need more evidence from the other sites to test if this applies to all Denisovans,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Denisovans’ huge range from Siberia through to Tibet and South-East Asia suggest they could adapt well to new environments.<\/p>\n

Professor Morley said it was a “pity” the cave was now inaccessible, but recent interest in Denisovans would drive more discoveries.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it will take too long before we have another site, probably more than one site, where we start getting Denisovan stuff,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The elusive Denisovans, extinct cousins of modern humans, have only left a few hints of their existence in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[456132,456137,64,63,64396,456142,456138,456135,456139,456133,110920,456131,456134,128,456130,456140,456141,456136],"class_list":["post-886618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-archaic-humans","tag-are-we-related-to-denisovans","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-denisovan","tag-denisovan-dna","tag-denisovan-dna-in-modern-humans","tag-denisovan-pronunciation","tag-denisovans-vs-neanderthals","tag-denisovans-vs-neanderthals-vs-humans","tag-dragon-man","tag-early-modern-human","tag-how-to-pronounce-denisovan","tag-science","tag-what-is-a-denisovan","tag-what-is-denisovan","tag-what-is-denisovan-dna","tag-who-were-the-denisovans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}