Cave Was Home Of Mysterious Ancient Humans

[Anomalocaris]

Siberian cave was home to generations of mysterious ancient humans

In 2010, scientists discovered a new kind of human by sequencing DNA from a girl’s pinky finger found in Denisova Cave in Siberia. Ever since, researchers have wondered when the girl lived, and if her people, called Denisovans, lingered in the cave or just passed through. But the elusive Denisovans left almost no fossil record—only that bit of bone and a handful of teeth—and they came from a site that was notoriously difficult to date.

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[Bavarian Raven]

Hmm maybe one day we will find a complete skeleton of these early people.

[Gingitsune]

I would be happy with just a few bones. We have next to nothing beside DNA.

[+DieChecker]

Didn't they leave DNA in the form of the Melanesians?

Some recent studies suggest that all humans outside of Africa have inherited some genes from Neanderthals, and that Melanesians are the only known modern humans whose prehistoric ancestors interbred with the Denisova hominin, sharing 4%–6% of their genome with this ancient cousin of the Neanderthal.[9]

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

I do hope we find more bones/DNA soon. As the more we have the better we will know them.

[Harry_Dresden]

Love to know what they mean by a 'new type of human?'

[Frank Merton]

The genes were different enough from all the other humans around to be considered a different species. It's a judgment call so care is needed, but is applied and new species are not declared just because of a few differences -- the differences have to be considerable and systematic.

[+Hammerclaw]

Calling them mysterious certainly adds a touch of mystery, doesn't it?

[Gingitsune]

Didn't they leave DNA in the form of the Melanesians?

Not only melanesian, pretty much all over Asia and Pacific island (although Melanesians have a higher percentage). Even Western Asian and Native American have traces of Denisovans, at about 0.2%. Some Euroepean have traces too, especially in the East, but not only.

http://dna-explained.com/2013/12/26/native-americans-neanderthal-and-denisova-admixture/

[+DieChecker]

Not only melanesian, pretty much all over Asia and Pacific island (although Melanesians have a higher percentage). Even Western Asian and Native American have traces of Denisovans, at about 0.2%. Some Euroepean have traces too, especially in the East, but not only.

http://dna-explained...sova-admixture/

Makes sense. Asians moved around a lot back in the day. Mongols pretty much conquered it all. And Huns (among others) brought Asian DNA into Europe.

[Frank Merton]

Makes sense. Asians moved around a lot back in the day. Mongols pretty much conquered it all. And Huns (among others) brought Asian DNA into Europe.

Since this involved half a million years or more, they had plenty of time to move around. This is long before Mongols and other modern humans moved in.

[+DieChecker]

Since this involved half a million years or more, they had plenty of time to move around. This is long before Mongols and other modern humans moved in.

But it wasn't until 4000 some years ago that population pressure, along with improved technologies really spurred migrations or mass traveling of peoples.

If there were a lot of Denisovans then wouldn't we expect to have found a lot more remains by now? I'd suspect that the DNA percentages we see today came from only a few interactions, and was spread around long afterward.