Unknown hominids from the Denisova Cave

Description:

Bence Viola from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig discovered the tooth fragments together with Russian colleagues in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains. Initially, he thought the inconspicuous-looking object was the molar of a cave bear. But when the remaining fragments of the tooth turned up, it became obvious that the researchers had found the tooth of a hominid. It was too large, however, to be from a modern man or Neanderthal. When the researchers finally succeeded in decoding the DNA of the tooth, their suspicion was confirmed: it hailed from a previously unknown early human species living in Asia at least 30,000 years ago. 

More information: New form of human discovered: www.mpg.de/620780/pressRelease201003292 Many roads lead to Asia: www.mpg.de/4438282/denisova_asia

Max Planck Society, title: The mysterious hominids from the Denisova Cave, 2011

Background information

Denisova Cave (Денисова пещера, also Ayu-Tash) is a cave in the Bashelaksky Range of the Altai mountains, Siberia, Russia. The cave is of paleoarchaeological and paleontological interest. Bone fragments of the Denisova hominin, sometime called the "X woman" (referring to the maternal descent of mitochondrial DNA) originate from the cave, including artifacts dated to ~40,000 BP. The cave is located in a region thought to be inhabited concurrently in the past by Neanderthals and modern humans. (Wikipedia)