DENISOVAN CAVE IN CHINA YIELDS FOSSILS AND HUNTING EVIDENCE

Archaeologists excavating Bianfu Cave in Yunnan province, southwestern China, have discovered five human fossils, nearly 1,400 stone artefacts, and more than 64,000 mammal bones dating to between 190,000 and 70,000 years ago. Analysis of the remains, published in two studies in the journal Nature on 9 September, confirmed that Denisovans occupied the cave and used it as a hunting site. The human fossils recovered from the cave dated to between 134,000 and 167,000 years ago, establishing the timeline of Denisovan habitation at the location.

Researchers used a protein-analysis technique called zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) to analyse bone fragments from the cave. The method involves extracting collagen from bones and comparing the protein pattern to reference animals, allowing scientists to identify the species that left the remains. The analysis revealed that Denisovans hunted and consumed large game animals within the cave, providing the first direct evidence of their diet and subsistence practices in a forested environment. The discovery significantly expands the archaeological record of Denisovans, a human lineage that lived in Asia and became extinct approximately 30,000 years ago.

Denisovans have remained poorly understood owing to the scarcity of fossil evidence; they are known from only a handful of fragmentary remains scattered across sites from Siberia to Laos. Ancient DNA analysis has established that Denisovans, Neanderthals and modern humans are distantly related and interbred in the past. The Yunnan region is known as a contact zone where Denisovans and modern humans encountered one another. The findings from Bianfu Cave provide direct insight into Denisovan behaviour and environment previously unavailable to researchers.