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Denisovan jaw found in the Tibetan Plateau

Started by Logo7, May 07, 2019, 02:15:26 AM

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Logo7

May 07, 2019, 02:15:26 AM
A jawbone discovered in the Tibetan Plateau in the Baishiya Karst Cave in Xiahe, China in 1980 has been determined to belong to a Denisovan, making it the first specimen of this variety of hominid found outside the Denisova Cave in Siberia. The mandible is the first fossil of a Denisovan found at a high altitude, explaining the presence of a gene in Denisovans that is still present in modern Sherpas and Tibetans that enables them to breathe at high altitudes. The presence of the gene in modern humans also suggests that Denisovans and modern humans may have interbred with each other and passed this gene on. Here is an image of the Xiahe mandible and a link to the paper describing it.



Paper (abstract only): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1139-x
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