News – Denisovan bones discovered in Tibetan Plateau

Copenhagen, Denmark – According to Science Magazine In a report, Huan Xia of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Freyo Welker of the University of Copenhagen identified a Denisovan rib bone found in the Baixia Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau among the remains of yaks, deer, hyenas, wolves, snow leopards, golden eagles and partridges. Spicesan animal also known as the blue sheep. The human rib was identified by analyzing proteins in collagen using zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry, or ZooMS. The amino acid sequence in the rib was determined to be an exact match for those in the remains of a Denisovan girl who lived in the Altai Mountains of Siberia about 50,000 years ago. Several of the animal bones in the study bore cut marks likely made by stone tools found in the same cave layers, suggesting that the Denisovans processed the animals for their meat, marrow, and hides, and may have made tools from some of the bones. The Denisovan rib was dated to between 48,000 and 32,000 years ago, when modern humans also lived in the area. Modern Tibetans are known to carry a gene variant, thought to have been inherited from the Denisovans, that helps them breathe at high altitudes. The researchers suggest that this contact between Denisovans and modern humans may have occurred on the Tibetan Plateau. Read the original Science article about this research at natureTo read more about the analysis of another bone discovered in the cave, go to “Denisovan Man on High,” one of the books on the subject. aarcheologyTop 10 Discoveries of 2019.