They continue to be probably the most elusive teams of people to have walked on earth. Proof from the DNA traces left by Denisovans exhibits they lived on the Tibetan plateau, in all probability travelled to the Philippines and Laos in south Asia and may need made their method to northern China greater than 100,000 years in the past. In addition they interbred with fashionable people.What Denisovans seemed like or how they lived has remained a thriller, nevertheless. Solely a jaw fragment, a couple of bits of bone and one or two tooth present any proof of their bodily traits.Their DNA, which was first present in samples from the Denisova collapse Siberia in 2010, offers most of our details about their existence.However just lately scientists have pinpointed a robust candidate for the species to which the Denisovans may need belonged. That is Homo longi – or “Dragon man” – from Harbin in north-east China. This key fossil is made up of an nearly full cranium with a braincase as large as a contemporary human’s and a flat face with delicate cheekbones. Courting suggests it’s at the very least 150,000 years outdated.“We now consider that the Denisovans have been members of the Homo longi species,” stated Prof Xijun Ni of the Chinese language Academy of Sciences in Beijing, final week. “The latter is characterised by a broad nostril, thick forehead ridges over its eyes and enormous tooth sockets.”The doable Denisovan-Homo longi hyperlink is certainly one of a number of current developments by researchers engaged on these people with whom Homo sapiens shared the planet for a whole bunch of hundreds of years. It’s even thought they may have performed a key position in our personal evolution.A reconstruction of the top of a younger lady belonging to the Denisovan group of early people primarily based on a skeletal profile from DNA. {Photograph}: Maayan HarelScientists in Tibet have found a Denisovan gene in native folks, the results of interbreeding between the 2 species within the distant previous. Crucially, this gene has been proven to assist fashionable women and men survive at excessive altitudes.As well as, proof to help the Denisovan-Homo longi hyperlink has additionally been traced to the Tibetan plateau, the place scientists started learning a jawbone initially present in a distant cave 3,000 metres (10,000ft) above sea stage by a Buddhist monk, who stored it as a relic.The bone was discovered to not come from a contemporary human. However solely when researchers started to review the cave the place the jawbone had been initially found did they discover its sediments have been wealthy in Denisovan DNA. As well as, it was discovered the fossil itself contained proteins that indicated Denisovan origins.“It was the primary time a Denisovan fossil discover had been made outdoors Sibera and that was essential,” stated Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “Equally intriguing was the truth that the jawbone has tooth which can be just like the tooth present in Homo longi. So I believe the proof suggests a hyperlink between the skull and Denisovans”This view was backed by Prof Chris Stringer of the Pure Historical past Museum in London. “The proof helps the concept that Denisovans have been members of Homo longi however we’re nonetheless wanting absolute proof. However, that may include time, I consider.”A giant downside for researchers has been the truth that no DNA has but been present in Chinese language fossils reminiscent of Homo longi, added Stringer. “Their genes haven’t survived the passing of time. Nonetheless, utilizing the strategies of proteomics could present key new knowledge. These concentrate on a fossil’s proteins, which survive for a lot longer than its DNA and will inform us way more in regards to the species.”Latest analysis additionally suggests these folks may need performed a key position within the evolution of our personal species.The affect of the Denisovan gene present in Tibetans at present offers one instance. However Denisovan DNA has additionally been present in different fashionable populations, together with folks in New Guinea, northern Australia and the Philippines, and seems to have helped them struggle infections from ailments reminiscent of malaria.Denisovans settled in areas that lined a really assorted geography, stated Stringer. “Some have been sizzling and low-lying, others have been chilly and mountainous. They represented very various habitats, from the Tibetan plateau to islands like Sulawesi [in Indonesia].”Against this, the Neanderthals, the third giant grouping of people that developed over the previous few a whole bunch of hundreds of years, confined themselves to the cooler climates of a area that stretched east from Europe to southern Siberia.They didn’t broaden from this comparatively uniform surroundings. So is the wealthy number of homelands adopted by the Denisovans an indication that they have been able to way more various and adaptive behaviour than Neanderthals, scientists are actually asking?Homo sapiens additionally seems to have interbred with Denisovans on a couple of event. “Certainly, there’s good proof that some fashionable people interbred with genetically distinct Denisovans on a number of events,” stated Kelso. “This means that the 2 teams coexisted for an prolonged time, with some research suggesting a final contact as just lately as 25,000 years in the past.”Crucially, by this time, Neanderthals have been already extinct.Analysis being carried out by Ni and Stringer additionally means that of the three fundamental bands of people who developed right now, Homo sapiens and the Homo longi group have been the final to diverge on totally different evolutionary pathways, probably 1,000,000 years in the past, with the Neanderthals branching off even earlier.Nonetheless, DNA analyses have advised more moderen divergence dates, with Homo sapiens splitting off first, so this can be a essential query for future analysis, stated Stringer.“How usually our paths crossed after that parting of the methods can be now a subject of intense scientific curiosity,” he added. “Now we have bought a lot to be taught.”