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<\/p>\nPaleoanthropologists have identified a trove of Denisovan fossils from a cave in China\u2019s Yunnan province, extending the known range of the elusive human relative and providing the first-ever direct evidence of what its forearm bones looked like.<\/p>\n
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An artist\u2019s concept of a Penghu Denisovan walking under the bright Sun during the Pleistocene of Taiwan. Image credit: Cheng-Han Sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cDenisovans are a genetically identified archaic hominin group believed to have been widely distributed across Asia,\u201d said senior author Dr. Qiaomei Fu, a researcher with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, due to the limited number of fossil remains, especially postcranial bones, a distribution gap has long existed in Southwest China.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, little is known about the physical traits that allowed Denisovans to adapt to different environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a new study, the researchers screened more than 60,000 bone fragments from Bianfu Cave in Yunnan province, China.<\/p>\n
Using techniques called zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry and proteomic sequencing analysis, they confirmed that five of these specimens belonged to Denisovans.<\/p>\n
The finds include two skull fragments, a piece of a radius, or forearm bone, and two teeth, dating to roughly 190,000 to 70,000 years ago.<\/p>\n
According to the team, Bianfu Cave now becomes the richest Denisovan site outside of Siberia.<\/p>\n
Among the new specimens, the forearm fragment is especially significant.<\/p>\n
It is the first Denisovan radius ever identified, offering researchers their first direct look at Denisovan limb anatomy beyond a single finger bone and rib recovered from other sites.<\/p>\n
Its proportions showed a mix of traits \u2014 a robust head and neck resembling Neanderthals, paired with an overall shape and cross-sectional geometry closer to modern humans \u2014 suggesting Denisovans may have had a distinctive combination of physical adaptations.<\/p>\n
The skull fragments, meanwhile, were notably thick, resembling patterns seen in Homo heidelbergensis and other archaic populations across East Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cBianfu Cave lies along an important migration corridor linking the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia,\u201d the scientists said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt thus fills a critical geographic gap in the known distribution of Denisovans and reveals their presence across a vast range from Siberia and northeastern China in the north, through the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the center, to the Taiwan Strait in the southeast, and now the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n