Denisovans were an enigmatic human species that, until recently, had only been identified thanks to DNA from fragmentary fossils, including a finger and a jaw bone.
More recently, a spectacular skull found in Harbin, China, has enabled us to put a face to this mysterious species and potentially give the Denisovans a new name: Homo longi, or Dragon Man. But it didn’t stop there. Three more skulls uncovered in Yunxian, China, are upending everything we know about human evolution. These 1-million-year-old artefacts offer a tantilising hint that Homo sapiens may be much older than previously thought and suggest we may be looking in the wrong time and place to find Ancestor X, the relative that modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans all decend from.
Join paleoanthropologist, Ella al-Shamahi as we explore the story of Denisovans and how they are changing everything we know about human evolution.
Read more: Hominin fossils from Morocco may be close ancestors of modern humans
Advertisement
Topics:
