"A team of scientists on Wednesday reported that the #fossil belonged to a 160,000-year-old #Denisovan, a member of a lineage of mysterious, #Neanderthal-like humans that disappeared about 50,000 years ago." nytimes.com/2019/05/01/sci… #Sapiens #Tibet

1. "The new fossil demonstrates that #Denisovans were remarkably hardy, able to endure harsh conditions on the Tibetan plateau, at an elevation of 10,700 feet, with only simple stone tools."

2. "The find also suggests that these #Denisovans may have evolved genetic adaptations to high altitudes, and that living #Tibetans may have inherited those genes thanks to interbreeding between Denisovans and modern humans in prehistoric times."

3. "Some of the #bones contained #Neanderthal #DNA, it turned out. But in 2010, Max Planck researchers discovered that one finger bone held different genes from an unknown human lineage."

4. "Over the past decade, scientists have discovered more Denisovan teeth and bone fragments, including a chunk of a skull. #Denisovans appeared to have lived in the cave, off and on, from 287,000 years ago to about 50,000 years ago."

5. "Judging from their #DNA, #Denisovans shared a common ancestor with #Neanderthals about 400,000 years ago. They interbred with Neanderthals and with our own species. Today, people in East Asia, Australia, the Pacific islands and the Americas all carry some Denisovan DNA."

6. "With the new discovery ... a picture of the #Denisovans has grown clearer. Everything about their heads seems to have been big, from their giant molars to their thick jaws to their massive brain cases. Dr. Viola speculated adults may have weighed well over 200 pounds."

7. “'I’d assume they’d be very large and robust individuals,' he said. 'These are like football players.'”

8. "The discovery of #Denisovans living at high altitude is intriguing for another reason: #Tibetans today share a special genetic link to Denisovans."

9. “'We don’t know the order of events,' she said. 'But #Denisovans are such a mysterious group that anything we learn is exciting.'”