Researchers have found an ancient tooth in a cave in the Annamite Mountains of Laos which may be the first physical evidence of an extinct, enigmatic group of humans called Denisovans in South-East Asia.
Tooth belongs to Denisovan
- The tooth, from the Tam Ngu Hao 2 cave, “most likely represents a Denisovan”, the researchers say.
- The molar is unveiled in a study published in Nature Communications by an international team.
- The researchers concluded it once belonged to a young girl who lived as far back as 164,000 years ago.
- Because the molar only recently completed development, and showed no signs of being worn, the team believes that the tooth is from a child between 3.5 to 8.5 years old when they died.
- Using sediment from around the tooth, they dated the tooth to between 164 to 131 thousand years old.
South-East region hotspot of diversity
- This discovery further attests that South-East Asia region was a hotspot of diversity for the genus Homo, with the presence of at least five late Middle to Late Pleistocene species: H. erectus, Denisovans/Neanderthals, H. floresiensis, H. luzonensis and H. sapiens.
Who were Denisovans?
- Denisovans are an extinct species of human first discovered when an analysis of a child’s finger bone found in the Denisovan cave in Siberian in 2008.
- In 2019, another fossil — a mandible with a set of teeth — was found in the Baishiya Karst Cave, a Buddhist Sanctuary in Tibetan plateau.
- Denisovans lived lakhs of years ago, coexisting with Neanderthals in some regions, and interbreeding with early modern humans in some cases.
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