An ancient jaw discovered in Taiwan was discovered DenisovansScientists said on Thursday.
Known of relatively low denisovans, a extinct group of human cousins who interact with Niendarthal and our own species, Homo Sepians.
“Denisovan fossils are very rare,” said only a few confirmation in East Asia, co-authors at the Graduate University for advanced study in Japan.
So far, the only known Denisovan fossils include partial jaws, some teeth and part of a finger bone found in caves in Siberia and Tibet. Some scientists believe that fossils found in a cave in Laos may also be related to denisovans.
Tastya said that the possible identity of the jaw from Taiwan expands the area where scientists know that these ancient people lived once, Tsutaya said.
“Denisovans should therefore be able to adapt to a wide range of housing types,” study the co-author Frido Velker Ritter told news agency,
Cheng-Han Sun / AP
Partial jobon was first recovered when a fishing operation submerged Seephlor to the Penghu channel near Taiwan Strait. After selling an ancient shop, a collector saw it and bought it in 2008, then donated it to the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan.
Based on the composition of Marine Aksheruki, found associated with it, the fossil was dated to the Playstosine era. But in fact which species of early human ancestors remained a mystery.
The state of fossil made it impossible to study ancient DNA. But recently, scientists in Taiwan, Japan and Denmark were able to extract some protein sequence from incomplete jaws.
An analysis showed that some protein sequences were inherent in a denisovan fossil genome recovered in Siberia. There were conclusions Published in journal Science,
While the new research is promising, the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Project Director Rick Pots said he would like to see further figures before confirming the Taiwan fossil as a denisovan.
Pots, which were not involved in new research, praised the study for “the brilliant job of recovering some proteins”. But he said, a small piece of material cannot give a complete picture.
At one time, at least three human ancestors group – Denisovan, Niendarthal and Homo Sepians – Co -existence in Eurasia and Sometimes interbedResearchers say.
“We can identify the Niendarthal elements and denisovan elements in the DNA of some people living today”, Tsutya said.
Scientists still do not know why Denisovans became extinct.
Velkar told Reuters, “We have very little archaeological and fossil information about Denisovans that we can only guess why they disappeared.” “A permanent heritage, however, is that some human population in East and Southeast Asia today leads some Denisovan dynasty in its genome.”
