These people lived in Tibet for 160,000 years before they became extinct.

When we think of our closest relatives, we think of the Neanderthals, those prehistoric people who were so similar to us that we merged with them. They were engraved in our DNA and raise all sorts of questions about their disappearance, their cognitive abilities, and even their possible symbolic culture. However, we tend to overlook other human species with whom we have lived longer. The one that appeared 200,000 years ago and who accompanied us only 40,000 years ago, the Denisovans, who also “celebrated” with our ancestors, leaving their genetic mark on us.

There is a lot that is unknown about the Denisovans because we have found very few remains of these people and therefore cannot analyze as much as we would like.. However, the research team analyzed more than 2,500 bones from the Baishiya karst cave on the Tibetan Plateau, one of two sites where Denisovans are known to have lived. And to give us an idea, the skeleton Homo sapiens an adult human, like us, has about 206 bones, so let’s not rush, because The vast majority of them were not Denisovans, but, grouped together in this way, they seemed closely related to them.

The study was conducted by Lanzhou University in China, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, the Tibetan Plateau Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Reading. A large number of universities to process large amounts of biochemical information. Indeed, the academic history of the Denisovans was itself closely linked to genetics.

The first remains were identified in 2008. with genetic analysis led by Svante Pääbo, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to paleogenetics.. However, since most of the bones were fragmented, it was difficult to determine the species they belonged to based on their appearance alone. So they decided to analyze the microscopic structure of the remains, especially their bone collagen, to determine their origin. By comparing it with the arrangement of collagen from other identified bones, they were able to label the vast majority of fragments. According to one of the researchers, Dr Huang Xia from Lanzhou University: “Zooarchaeology using mass spectrometry (ZooMS) allows us to extract valuable information from often overlooked bone fragments, providing a deeper understanding of human activities.”

And, in addition to identifying species in search of Denisovan fragments, we are interested in finding out what species they interacted with, what they might have hunted, how they used them, and generally what their lives were like.. So, of these 2,500 pieces of bones, most belonged to blue sheep (better known as bharals), wild yaks, horses, woolly rhinoceroses and spotted hyenas. In smaller quantities, the researchers also found fragments of birds and small mammals, such as marmots.

But as we have said, the goal was not only to identify them, but also to unravel our relationship with them. Dr. Jian Wang of Lanzhou University put it this way: “The available evidence suggests that it was the Denisovans, rather than other human groups, who occupied the cave and efficiently exploited all available animal resources throughout their existence.” Now, by analyzing the surface of the fragments, experts have discovered traces of tool production and food processing, as if the meat and bone marrow had been separated from the bone.

But the study yielded another piece of good news. Among the many fragments, they found a rib that belonged to a Denisovan. The bone was found in a relatively superficial layer, and scientists dated it to between 48,000 and 32,000 years old. The time when modern humans began to spread across the Eurasian continent.

Dr Frido Welker, from the University of Copenhagen, added: “Taken together, the fossils and molecular data indicate that the Ganja Basin, where the Baishiya karst cave is located, provided a relatively stable environment for the Denisovans, despite its high altitude.” And indeed, it seems that they have lived there for many tens of thousands of years, despite the climate changes they have experienced. Because in that time they have lived through two ice ages and an interglacial. So, little by little, the truth is that we are learning about these strange relatives who have been intermingling with our ancestors for several millennia.

UNKNOWN:

• Denisovans are a species well established in the scientific consensus, and it is at least likely that there are other, less established species that are actually subspecies of this species, as was the case with the remains Homo longbetter known as the dragon man, was found several years ago.

REFERENCES (MLA);

• Liu, Shuo, et al. “Middle and Late Pleistocene Denisovan Lifestyle in the Baishiya Karst Cave.” Nature, vol. 621, no. 4, 3 July 2024, pp. 36–47. Nature Publishing Group, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07612-9.