Bianfu Cave in China reveals Denisovans as specialized forest hunters

Researchers have identified Bianfu Cave in southwest China's Yunnan province as the richest Denisovan site beyond Siberia's Denisova Cave, where this extinct human group was first discovered.

The findings, published in two separate papers in Nature, reveal how Denisovans thrived as specialised hunters in the region's coniferous forests and forest-steppe environments, targeting animals such as deer. Within these landscapes, the archaic human group established a stable subsistence pattern highly adapted to local resources through specialised hunting and the intensive exploitation of animals.

Filling Geographic Gaps

The discoveries in Yunnan fill a geographic gap in understanding how Denisovans lived across their range. The extinct Denisovans once roamed Eurasia, having diverged from modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals several hundred thousand years ago.

Since Denisovans were first identified in 2010, research has yielded only a handful of molecularly identified remains, leaving scientists with a limited understanding of the species.

The two papers were co-authored by researchers from institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and were published simultaneously in Nature on September 9. The two papers overlap in their study focus and some of the researchers are cited as authors on both papers.

One paper, titled "Ancient proteins identify various Denisovan remains from southwest China", established Bianfu Cave as yielding the most abundant remains of this hominin group outside Denisova Cave in Siberia.

Source: South China Morning Post