Denisovans: Our Mysterious Cousins That Made Us Better

During most of the past 2 million years or so, there were several species of hominins on Earth at any given time. Like, you might be familiar with our famous extinct cousins, the Neanderthals. But since 2010 we’ve been uncovering evidence of another mysterious cousin that we lived alongside, the Denisovans!

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Sources:
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-origin-of-our-species.html
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-Neanderthalensis
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-Neanderthals.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00672-2
http://discovermagazine.com/2016/dec/meet-the-Denisovans

The first known fossil of a Denisovan skull has been found in a Siberian cave

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/first-fossil-jaw-Denisovans-finally-puts-face-elusive-human-relatives
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/04/11/Denisovan-indonesia-humans-new-species/#.XOdjs4hKg2w

New Studies Reveal the History of Denisova Cave

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/07/tibetans-inherited-high-altitude-gene-ancient-human
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/science/inuit-greenland-Denisovans.html
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31267-2
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6130845

Images:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_sapiens_neanderthalensis.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhodesian_Men.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neanderthaler,_Oase,_Rum%C3%A4nien_(Daniela_Hitzemann).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neandertaler_reconst.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dermoplastie_de_la_Femme_de_Flor%C3%A8s_par_Elisabeth_Dayn%C3%A8s,_2007.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denisova_Phalanx_distalis.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asia_laea_relief_location_map.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denisova_4_Denisovan_molar_2.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xiahe_mandible.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%89%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denisova_Cave_lithic_and_osseous_artifacts.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sapiens_neanderthal_comparison_en_blackbackground.png
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southeast_Asia_(orthographic_projection).svg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spreading_homo_sapiens_la.svg
https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/178546.php?from=403370
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/traffic-in-the-lhasa-old-town-with-potala-palace-gm1135675966-302202596
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/colorful-inuit-houses-at-the-fjord-nuuk-gm628608846-111651479
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/human-evolution-stages-from-australopithecus-to-homo-sapiens-sapiens-flat-vector-gm1018211152-273738482
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/primitive-people-in-stone-age-cartoon-icons-primitive-man-cartoon-vector-in-animal-gm1090046268-292422260