First Confirmed Denisovan Skull Piece Found

[lostlogin]

For those like me who had no idea - Denisovans diverged from the branch that became Modern humans 600-744,000 years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan

[speeq]

> Melanesians were found to have a mysterious third archaic Homo species along with their Denisovan (3–4%) and Neanderthal (2%) ancestors in a genetic admixture with their otherwise modern Homo sapiens sapiens genomes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanesia

> People from Melanesia may carry genetic evidence of a previously unknown extinct hominid species

https://phys.org/news/2016-11-people-melanesia-genetic-evide...

[mnemotechny]

Thank you, stranger.

[wavefunction]

Modern humans derive from Denisovans so the distinction seems rather minor.

[dkarl]

It's amazing and exciting that we know so little about a human lineage that contributed a measurable amount of DNA back to us hundreds of thousands of years after our lineages diverged.

[jokoon]

How did they confirm such findings? I guess DNA can't survive for so long. Did they deduct this from shape?

[Matticus_Rex]

With modern extraction techniques DNA is doable.

[lugg]

It's like four paragraphs in, did you even RTFA?

> DNA analysis proves that the piece is Denisovan, though it’s too old to date with radiocarbon techniques.