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High-altitude cave used by Tibetan Buddhists yields a Denisovan fossil


Cave deposits yield bones of sheep, yaks, carnivores, and birds that were butchered.

By contrast, we had no idea Denisovans existed until sequencing DNA from a small finger bone revealed that yet another relative of modern humans had roamed Asia in the recent past. On Wednesday, an international group of researchers described finds from a cave on the Tibetan Plateau that had been occupied by Denisovans, which tell us a bit more about these relatives: what they ate. Oddly, it came to the attention of the paleontology community because the cave was a pilgrimage site for Tibetan monks, one of whom discovered a portion of a lower jaw that eventually was given to a university.

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Photo of Tibetan Buddhists

Tibetan Buddhists

Photo of Denisovan

Denisovan

Photo of Tibetan

Tibetan