Denisovans on the Tibetan Plateau

Excavations at Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan plateau are revealing details about the 

lives of Denisovans, a group of ancient humans about which little is known. Dongju Zhang’s group/Lanzhou University

Denisovans survived and thrived on the high-altitude Tibetan plateau for more than 100,000 years, according to a new study that deepens scientific understanding of the enigmatic ancient humans first identified in 2010.

Researchers analyzed thousands of animal bone fragments unearthed at Baishiya Karst Cave, 3,280 meters above sea level near the city of Xiahe in China’s Gansu province — one of only three places the extinct humans were known to have lived. Their work revealed that Denisovans could hunt, butcher and process a range of different large and small animals, including woolly rhinos, blue sheep, wild yaks, marmots and birds.

The team of archaeologists working at the cave also uncovered a rib bone fragment in a layer of sediment that dates back between 48,000 and 32,000 years, making it the youngest of the handful of known Denisovan fossils — a clue that the species was around more recently than scientists previously thought.          READ MORE...