Photograph: Maayan Harel
Posted on 04/08/2024 8:23:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
They remain one of the most elusive groups of humans to have walked on earth. Evidence from the DNA traces left by Denisovans shows they lived on the Tibetan plateau, probably travelled to the Philippines and Laos in south Asia and might have made their way to northern China more than 100,000 years ago. They also interbred with modern humans...
Their DNA, which was first found in samples from the Denisova cave in Siberia in 2010, provides most of our information about their existence.
But recently scientists have pinpointed a strong candidate for the species to which the Denisovans might have belonged. This is Homo longi – or "Dragon man" – from Harbin in north-east China. This key fossil is made up of an almost complete skull with a braincase as big as a modern human's and a flat face with delicate cheekbones. Dating suggests it is at least 150,000 years old...
Scientists in Tibet have discovered a Denisovan gene in local people, the result of interbreeding between the two species in the distant past. Crucially, this gene has been shown to help modern men and women survive at high altitudes.
In addition, evidence to support the Denisovan-Homo longi link has also been traced to the Tibetan plateau, where scientists began studying a jawbone initially found in a remote cave 3,000 metres (10,000ft) above sea level by a Buddhist monk, who kept it as a relic.
The bone was found not to come from a modern human. But only when researchers began to study the cave where the jawbone had been originally discovered did they find its sediments were rich in Denisovan DNA. In addition, it was found the fossil itself contained proteins that indicated Denisovan origins.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“Scientists link elusive human group to 150,000-year-old Chinese ‘dragon man’”
That’s almost as old as Joe ... but probably mentally sharper.
Guilty!
Oh, sorry, wrong thread. 😜
:^)
My wife was right. I just might be related to Godzilla.
An elusive human group more than 100,000 years ago interbred with modern humans. Who were time travelers.
In another life I was the king of Spain.
In fact, I might be living that life right now.
Hard to tell.
I’ve made way too many screw ups to have lived before. This has to be my first go-round. Either that, or I learned absolutely nothing the time(s) before.
Crucially, this gene has been shown to help modern men and women survive at high altitudes.
—
not mentioned is another gene that helps survive extreme cold.
So the Denisovans must have lived at high altitudes where it was always very cold. Yeti?
There are legends of a people who live high in the mountains and never came down to the low lands because they revered life.
elusive human group more than 100,000 years ago interbred with modern humans. Who were time travelers.
—
Modern humans go back, according to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), to 300,000 years ago.
No time traveling needed.
The British Royal Navy defines experience as ''not making the same mistake twice''.
Yes, I know. I was just playing around with different meanings of "modern humans."
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