The female of a young girl found in a cave in Laos turned out to belong to a group of prehistoric human relatives known as the Denisova people. The discovery is said to help researchers better understand modern human evolution.
The Denisova people are relatively newly discovered human relatives, whose remains were first discovered in 2010 in a Siberian cave in northern Russia. Following this initial discovery, more remains were found, including bones that are at least 200,000 years old and a jawbone found in Tibet.
The discovery of the molars in Laos, whose findings were published last week in the journal Nature Communications, marks the first time traces of Denisova people have been found in Southeast Asia. This indicates a connection with modern humans living in the area today.
co-author and paleoanthropologist Laura Shackelford of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign told USA TODAY, “We were surprised to find the female because we weren’t looking for Denisova people, and we didn’t even expect this type of discovery.”
The tooth was found in what is known as the Cobra Cave near Tam Ngu Hao, about 250 kilometers north of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The residue resembles a modern human tooth, but the protrusions and tips on its surface stand out as the biggest difference. The fossil, found in 2018, was found among other animal fossils in a cave that was thought to have been reached during a flood.
Eske Willerslev, co-author of the study and professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said: “This is the first time we’ve found anything this far south. The finding of the molars changes our understanding of the geographic distribution of Denisova people.”
The humid conditions of Laos meant that the tooth’s DNA was not well preserved, but by analyzing the sediment in which the tooth was found, the researchers were able to estimate it to be between 131,000 and 164,000 years old. Ancient proteins found in the fossil suggested that the fossil belonged to a young Denisova human daughter, aged between 3 and 8.
“We were also able to assess the girl’s age with great precision, as the molars had not yet erupted and therefore had not worn out,” says Fabrice Demeter, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen.
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