Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 19 (Xinhua) — Denisovans inhabited vast areas of Asia at least 146,000 years ago, Chinese paleoanthropologists have concluded based on a study of the skull of the so-called Harbin man, an early Denisovan.
Denisovans are an extinct human subspecies or species whose remains were first discovered in 2008 in Denisova Cave in what is now Russia’s Altai Krai. Later, teeth, bone fragments, and an incomplete jaw were found on the Tibetan Plateau, the Penghu Islands, and elsewhere in China, suggesting that Denisovans may have been widespread in Asia.
However, the lack of fossil specimens with complete morphological characteristics and convincing molecular evidence has seriously hampered our understanding of the morphology, distribution, and role of Denisovans in the evolution of ancient humans in East Asia.
A research team led by Fu Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted research on the well-preserved skull of the so-called Harbin Man, aged 146,000 years. Using molecular paleontology methods, the scientists were able to isolate DNA from the dental calculus of the Harbin Man and find out that he belonged to one of the early groups of Denisovans.
The results of the study were published on Wednesday on the websites of the prestigious international scientific journals Science and Cell.
Recent research provides key insights into the group affiliation of Harbin Man and a more complete picture of the morphology and genetic lineages of Denisovans.
As scientists have acknowledged, many questions related to the Harbin man remain open. For example, did he spread further to the south of modern China, did he interact with other species of people, etc. -0-