Scientists have reconstructed the face of our prehistoric relative, the Denisovans, who lived in Siberia and Eastern Asia before they became extinct about 50,000 years ago.
The Mysterious Denisovans
Unlike the Neanderthals, much remains a mystery about the Denisovans largely because their existence is known mostly from small fragments such as a jawbone, teeth, and a 40,000-year-old Denisovan girl's pinky bone. No complete skeleton or skull of a Denisovan has yet been found.
A team of researchers, however, was able to reconstruct the face of the Denisovans using the DNA from the finger bone found in a Siberian cave in 2008, giving hints on what this ancient human relative may have looked like.
Reconstructing The Anatomy And Face Of The Denisovans
Epigenetic tags called methyl groups are added to the DNA when genes get switched off in cells. In the study, researchers compared the methylation patterns in the Denisovan finger bone with those found in modern humans and chimpanzees.
"We tested performance by reconstructing Neanderthal and chimpanzee skeletal morphologies and obtained >85% precision in identifying divergent traits," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in the journal Cell on Thursday. "We then applied this method to the Denisovan and offer a putative morphological profile."
The researchers used the information to infer how the Denisovan bones grow different from ours as well as predict how this prehistoric species looked like.
They found that the Denisovans had 56 features that were different from Neanderthals and modern humans, including a longer dental arch and a wider skull. The Denisovans also shared some traits with the Neanderthals such as wide pelvises and elongated, protruding faces.
"We provide the first reconstruction of the skeletal anatomy of Denisovans," said study researcher Liran Carmel,from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "In many ways, Denisovans resembled Neanderthals, but in some traits, they resembled us, and in others they were unique."
Predictions Not Perfect
The researchers said the predictions of what the Denisovans looked like are not perfect, but the fossil used in the study came from a juvenile Denisovan, which may account for the inconsistencies in the predicted anatomical features.
