Laos

A 130,000-year-old human tooth found in a cave in Laos…is most likely a mysterious human “Denisovan” | Business Insider Japan


A Denisovan reconstruction (left) and a photograph of a tooth found in Laos (right).

Mayan Harel/Fabrice Demeter (University of Copenhagen/CNRS Paris)/Insider

  • A tooth found in a cave in Laos has been identified as belonging to an ancient people called the Denisovans.
  • The tooth, believed to belong to a girl, is the first evidence that Denisovans lived in Southeast Asia.
  • This is about to unravel the mystery of how Denisovan genes were passed on to people in Southeast Asia today.

The first traces of the now-extinct Denisovans have been found in Southeast Asia.

Scientists knew that some Denisovan genes had been passed on to people in today’s Southeast Asia, so they scoured the region for signs of Denisovans. However, it’s hard to find.

A tooth of a young Denisovan aged more than 130,000 years has been found in a cave in Laos.

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An associate professor at the Flinders Institute of Microarchaeology said: “Why is Denisovan DNA found in these Southeast Asians but not in Eurasia or elsewhere? It’s a big mystery. ” said Mike Morley, a co-author of the dental study, in a press release.

“This tooth is the so-called ‘killer,'” he said.

Research on this tooth, discovered in 2018 at the Tam Ngu Hao 2 cave site in Laos, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications on May 17, 2022.

Teeth found in Laos.

Teeth found in Laos.

natural communication

Many Denisovan remains have previously been found in Siberia.

Denisovans are an ancient human species that became extinct along with Neanderthals, Naledi, Bodos, and others. Denisovans are one of the most mysterious ancient humans, and only a few traces of them have been found so far. Most of the remains found so far were found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia, northern Laos.

Scientists believe that Denisovans migrated to Southeast Asia, where they interbred with the ancestors of modern humans. A 2020 study found some Denisovan genes in some populations in Southeast Asia.

Laos is the second place outside Siberia where evidence of Denisovans has been found, after Tibet. The Siberian caves where the first Denisovan remains were discovered in 2008 are thought to have been inhabited by Denisovans between about 300,000 and about 50,000 years ago. Finds in the cave suggest that Denisovans may have used stone tools and may have interbred with ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals.



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