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Who Were the Denisovans?
Most of us know about Homo sapiens neanderthalis, the Neanderthals. We know they lived in Europe before our own ancestors got there, we know they tended to be stockier, hairier and had a different skull shape. We know there was conflict and we know there was, well. Mating.
But there was another human subspecies that ranged across Asia, and we know very little about them. They were only discovered about a decade ago, and we have found very few remains of them.
So, what do we know about these people?
What We Know
The Denisovans were identified when some fragmented remains were found in Denisova Cave in Siberia.
No full skeleton or even full skull of a Denisovan has been found, for reasons we don’t know. (I have a theory which I’ll go into later).
But we have managed to sequence Denisovan DNA. This article includes an artists impression of what a Denisovan girl might have looked like.
Thus, we know that they were distinct from both Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens neanderthalis, although they were closer to the latter.
And we also know that there was, guess what.
Yup.
Mating.