Ancient clues of the human ancestors, particularly the group of Denisovans, were unearthed in the regions of southeast Asia. This new research was the first-ever project to have collected remains of the said extinct human species on the continent.
The discovery of the new Denisovan remains was part of a larger research that traces back the genealogy of the human species in the southeastern regions, as experts believe that the heredity of this group was passed down and is present in many populations of Asia living today.
Despite the genes being carried out by humans in the southeast Asian countries today, there was still no proof collected that supports the existence of the Denisovans in these places.
First Denisovan Evidence in Southeast Asia
Pictures of TNH2-1 in occlusal (a), inferior (b), mesial (c), distal (d), buccal (e), and lingual (f) views.
In the study, a part of Denisovan's remains was excavated at a cave located in Laos. The bone, a single tooth that is theorized to have been a part of a young human, dates back around 130,000 years ago.
Flinders University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences specialist Mike Morley, who co-authored the study, explained in a report by Business Insider that it was a huge mystery for the scientific community why the Denisovan genes are exclusively present in southeast Asia but not in Eurasia and other regions.
Morley continued that the recent discovery of the ancient tooth serves as a 'smoking gun' for the problem.
The tooth was extracted from the soil of a cave known as Tam Ngu Hao 2. The first-ever dig that was responsible for coincidentally bringing back the tooth to the surface was an excavation project that took place in the Laos cave last 2018.
Denisovans are a significant group of ancient human genealogies. These people are now extinct, like the Homo naledi, Homo bodonesis, and the Neanderthals. From these collective species emerged what makes up the whole human population living on our planet today.
Denisovan clues are considered elusive due to the scarcity of evidence dug up to explain the group's physiology and way of life. Most remains from this group come from north of Laos, particularly in the Denisovan cave of Siberia, Yahoo reports.
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Denisovan Tooth from a Cave in Laos
Although they were missing in today's sites, experts still believe that the Denisovans have reached parts of the large Southeast Asian regions and might have even crossed paths with the modern humans of the time.
In 2020, a separate study conducted for a small gene collection of Denisovans supported this theory, showing that the ancient species dominated populations in southeast Asia.
The Laos site is only the second site that provided remains of the Denisovans aside from the Siberian cave. This area in the north showed a stunning collection of ancient humans back in 2008, with data suggesting that the Denisovans lived in the cave from approximately 300,000 years ago to at least 50,000 years ago.
The Siberian hollow also showed that the group utilized ancient paraphernalia like stone tools and might have interbred with other ancient people from the Neanderthals and modern humans.
The new Denisovan tooth discovery revealed that the bone belonged to a girl between 3.5 to 8.5 years. The shape of its internal structure is closely related to the specimens collected from the Tibetan cave. The child might have existed between 164,000 and 131,000 years ago in the Laos region.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications, titled "A Middle Pleistocene Denisovan molar from the Annamite Chain of northern Laos."
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