Extinct Human Species Remains Puzzles Scientists After Discovery
While we may think of all humans as not really being that different from each other, in reality, there actually were different species of humans at one point before our current species became the dominant one. We are still learning a great deal about some of the extinct human species that used to exist in the world, but scientists have recently learned that one of those species, the Denisovans, may not have been extinct for as long as once previously thought.
Denisovans
Previous studies have revealed that the Denisovans lived on the Tibetan Plateau for over 100,000 years. However, a more recent investigation into the Baishiya Karst Cave in this region has shed even further light on this extinct human species.
Bone fragments in this cave belonged to many species of animals, but some of what was recovered were found to actually be human. Dating the bones revealed that they were only around 48,000 to 32,000 years old.
The Tibetan Plateau
While that is still not exactly recent, that is far younger than what archaeologists had previously identified the Denisovans as being.
This completely shifts what we know about this extinct human species, as it is now clear that they continued to survive in the area’s harsh conditions much better than had been believed.
The weather conditions on the Tibetan Plateau are not welcoming. The high altitude makes life in general quite difficult to adapt to, especially for humans that have little natural protection for such conditions.
For the Denisovans to not only live there, but to evidently thrive, opens up way more theories about the way of life of this extinct human species than previously thought of.
Denisovans And Other Human Species
Our knowledge of the Denisovans is also still quite early. Remains of them before they went extinct as a human species were only first discovered in 2010. That came via the discovery of a finger bone in a cave in Siberia.
Since that time, we have learned that some Denisovans did encounter ancestors of the modern human species and bred with them. This was confirmed by the fact that there are some modern humans who do have traces of Denisovan DNA, particularly in parts of Asia.
Advanced Humans
Archaeologists are particularly interested in learning the extent of how much interaction our human species had with the Denisovans before their species disappeared.
The revelation that this extinct human species was around for so much longer than previously thought opens up many possibilities for how they could have been present for aspects of our history and culture that we were not aware of.
Samples collected from the Tibetan Plateau revealed indicators of the Denisovans having some level of advancement.
Evidence points towards this extinct human species being sophisticated enough to have tools, clothing, and methods for being adept at processing animals to acquire meat and hides from them.
Not Far from Neanderthals
DNA analysis points towards the Denisovans being pretty closely related to Neanderthals, and most people associate Neanderthals as being quite primitive. So this new information about this extinct human species calls into question how sophisticated the Denisovans actually were to do so well at surviving for so long. And how much more do we share in common with this species that we were not aware of?
Source: Nature.com
