Fossil Discoveries in China Provide New Insights into Denisovan Culture

Archaeologists have discovered fossilized remains and tools in Bianfu Cave in southwestern China, providing new evidence regarding the lives of the extinct hominin species known as Denisovans. The findings, published in the journal Nature, include four teeth, two skull fragments, and part of an arm bone. These remains are dated to between 167,000 and 134,000 years ago. The discovery is significant because the cave appears to have been occupied primarily by Denisovans, allowing researchers to associate the fossils directly with cultural remains. Researchers uncovered approximately 1,300 artifacts, including stone and bone tools, as well as fossilized pollen and animal remains from the region's conifer forests. Because ancient DNA had degraded, the team identified the fossils using amino acid variants and morphology. This site marks only the third location where Denisovans are definitively known to have lived, suggesting they occupied diverse environments ranging from the Siberian mountains to subtropical latitudes. Previously, most Denisovan evidence came from isolated finds or the Denisova Cave in Siberia, where the presence of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens made it difficult to attribute specific tools to a single species. The new evidence suggests Denisovans lived similarly to Neanderthals and may have been larger in stature than modern humans.