Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Denisova 4, a molar. The Denisovans or Denisova hominins (/ d ə ˈ n iː s ə v ə / də-NEE-sə-və) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. [1]
The site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, under the name, Archaeological Site of Atapuerca. [4] [5] The site is also protected at national level (as a Zona Arqueológica, a category of Bien de Interés Cultural on the heritage register) and at regional level (Castile and León has designated the Sierra de Atapuerca an Espacio cultural).
Denisovans, Neanderthals and related hybrids may have inhabited the Denisova Cave for extended periods, but perhaps not at the same time. [6] The attribution of the needle and certain other artifacts at the cave, whether to Homo sapiens or to the Denisova hominin (also sometimes known as Homo denisova ), is uncertain.
Denisova 11, genetic tree of ancestors. Denny (Denisova 11) is an ~90,000 year old fossil specimen belonging to a ~13-year-old Neanderthal-Denisovan hybrid girl. [1] [2] To date, she is the only first-generation hybrid hominin ever discovered. [3]
By way of protein analysis, researchers concluded that the Xiahe specimen belonged to a population that was closely related to the Denisovan specimens from Denisova Cave. [9] This is the first time that an ancient hominin was successfully identified using only protein analysis. [10] It is the most complete known Denisovan fossil. [10]
The split of the modern human lineage from the Neanderthal and Denisovan lineage is dated to between ca. 760–550 kya based on full genome analysis. This is consistent with the estimate based on Y-chromosomal DNA , which places the split between ca. 806–447 kya. [ 4 ]
Katerina Douka (born c. 1980) is an archaeological scientist whose work focuses on the spatio-temporal pattern of human dispersals and extinctions across Eurasia, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern Homo sapiens.
[15] [16] She also co-led a team that found Denisovan DNA in excavated dirt as an alternative to finding rare hominin bones. [3] In 2018, Slon and her colleagues published the genome of Denny, a hybrid hominin. [17] DNA was extracted from a hominin bone found in a Middle Pleistocene layer.