Research
Scientists finally link human fossils found in China fifty years ago to the Denisovans, early human ancestors that we still know very little about
Earth.com · By Adrian Villellas ·
The Brief
- Between 1976 and 1979, excavators in the Nihewan Basin of northern China recovered 20 human fossils at the Xujiayao site.
- Nearly five decades later, these fossils have been linked to the Denisovan lineage.
- Denisovans are an extinct human group first identified from DNA in a Siberian cave, and remain poorly understood.
Why it matters
The link places a set of fossils from China within the Denisovan lineage, which helps researchers map where this extinct group lived and how it relates to other early humans.
Who’s affected
- paleoanthropologists and human evolution researchers
- #denisovans
- #paleoanthropology
- #human evolution
- #xujiayao
- #fossils
Between 1976 and 1979, excavators in the Nihewan Basin of northern China recovered 20 human fossils at a site called Xujiayao. From there, it took nearly five decades to tie them to the Denisovan lineage, an extinct human group first identified from DNA in a Siberian cave . The…
Timeline
Earth.com reports that the Xujiayao fossils have been linked to the Denisovans
Earth.com
Scientists finally link human fossils found in China fifty years ago to the Denisovans, early human ancestors that we still know very little about