Fossil tooth pushes back record of mysterious Neandertal relative
Denisovans lived in Asia at least 100,000 years ago, DNA analysis suggests
By Bruce Bower
DNA retrieved from a child’s worn-down fossil tooth shows the ancient Asian roots of extinct Neandertal relatives called Denisovans, researchers say.
A 10- to 12-year-old female Denisovan, represented by the tooth, lived at least 100,000 years ago, conclude evolutionary geneticist Viviane Slon of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues. That makes the tooth at least 20,000 years older than the oldest of the three previously discovered Denisovan fossils — a finger fragment and two teeth — the scientists report July 7 in Science Advances. All four Denisovan specimens were unearthed in Siberia’s Denisova Cave.