A treasure of paleoanthropology has been discovered in Tam Ngũ Hào 2 Cave, located on the Lao side of the Annamite Range: a tooth that likely belonged to the Denisovans, an extinct species of hominin.
The Denisovans are part of the genus Homo, which includes modern Homo sapiens. They went extinct only tens of thousands of years ago and have contributed genetic material to many Asians through interbreeding. However, the evidence is scant; while there are traces of DNA, skeletal remains are virtually non-existent, making them a “ghost ancestor” that paleoanthropologists are eager to uncover.
Overview of the Tam Ngũ Hào 2 Cave area – (Photo: REUTERS)
Only a small finger bone was excavated in 2008 from a cave in Siberia, Russia, which did not match any other known hominin remains. Additionally, some sediment traces from another cave in Tibet, China, are rare physical evidence of the Denisovans.
However, according to Science Alert, the recently discovered specimen in the Tam Ngũ Hào 2 Cave of the Annamite Range – the mountain range separating Vietnam and Laos – could be the most significant and informative evidence we have about this ghostly species.
According to Reuters, the tooth belongs to a girl aged approximately 4-6 years, who lived around 164,000 to 131,000 years ago.
The ancient tooth may be a treasure of paleoanthropology – (Photo: REUTERS)
The female specimen has been identified as belonging to the genus Homo and has many characteristics similar to the descriptions of Denisovans that scientists previously “reconstructed” from traces found in hybrids – specifically Denisovan-Neanderthal hybrids (another ancient hominin species) or modern humans. A study estimates that up to one-quarter of Asians carry some genetic traces from Denisovans.
Scientists have also hypothesized that the tooth could belong to a Neanderthal, but certain differences have shown that it is unlikely; the possibility that it belongs to the Denisovans remains the highest and almost certain.
“This discovery further confirms that Southeast Asia is a hotspot for diversity of the Homo genus from the mid to late Pleistocene: Homo erectus, Denisovans, Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, and Homo sapiens” – the authors wrote in their publication.
The study was conducted by a research team from the Lundbeck Foundation’s Geography Center, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen (Denmark), National Museum of Natural History, CNRS, University of Paris, and the Museum of Mankind, 17 place du Trocadéro (France), and was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
