Denisovan jawbone dredged up by fishermen near Taiwan

[essentialsaltes]

Fossil jawbone reveals mysterious Denisovans lived in ancient Taiwan​

First confirmed fossil found outside Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau shows the archaic human also lived in hot climates​

In 2008, Kun-Yu Tsai was shopping for antiques in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City when an unusual relic caught his eye: a brownish jawbone with blackened, thickset teeth that fishermen had dredged up from the nearby Penghu Channel. An amateur fossil hunter, Kun-Yu recognized the mysterious jawbone as human—but noticed it was distinct from modern mandibles. Intrigued, he bought the fossil and later donated it to Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.

An analysis of ancient proteinspreserved within the fossil, published today in Science, pegs the jawbone as belonging to a Denisovan, a close cousin of Neanderthals that lived from roughly 400,000 years to 30,000 years ago. Previous confirmed fossils of the enigmatic hominin were found only in the cold, high-altitude climes of Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau. But Penghu 1, as the jawbone is known, shows Denisovans were also at home in humid lowland tropics, says Fabrice Demeter, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Copenhagen (KU) who wasn’t involved with the work.

The first Denisovan remains were uncovered by Russian scientists in Siberia’s Denisova Cave in 2008.

Hmmm... that's the same year this jawbone was found.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Clearly it was washed there by the Flood.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Fossil jawbone reveals mysterious Denisovans lived in ancient Taiwan​

First confirmed fossil found outside Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau shows the archaic human also lived in hot climates​

In 2008, Kun-Yu Tsai was shopping for antiques in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City when an unusual relic caught his eye: a brownish jawbone with blackened, thickset teeth that fishermen had dredged up from the nearby Penghu Channel. An amateur fossil hunter, Kun-Yu recognized the mysterious jawbone as human—but noticed it was distinct from modern mandibles. Intrigued, he bought the fossil and later donated it to Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.

An analysis of ancient proteinspreserved within the fossil, published today in Science, pegs the jawbone as belonging to a Denisovan, a close cousin of Neanderthals that lived from roughly 400,000 years to 30,000 years ago. Previous confirmed fossils of the enigmatic hominin were found only in the cold, high-altitude climes of Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau. But Penghu 1, as the jawbone is known, shows Denisovans were also at home in humid lowland tropics, says Fabrice Demeter, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Copenhagen (KU) who wasn’t involved with the work.

The first Denisovan remains were uncovered by Russian scientists in Siberia’s Denisova Cave in 2008.

Hmmm... that's the same year this jawbone was found.

View attachment 363494

I know there is some open questions about other East Asian finds possibly being part of the same group, or another closely related group. Other fossils that might be related include the Dali Man skull.

 

[juvenissun]

Fossil jawbone reveals mysterious Denisovans lived in ancient Taiwan​

First confirmed fossil found outside Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau shows the archaic human also lived in hot climates​

In 2008, Kun-Yu Tsai was shopping for antiques in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City when an unusual relic caught his eye: a brownish jawbone with blackened, thickset teeth that fishermen had dredged up from the nearby Penghu Channel. An amateur fossil hunter, Kun-Yu recognized the mysterious jawbone as human—but noticed it was distinct from modern mandibles. Intrigued, he bought the fossil and later donated it to Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.

An analysis of ancient proteinspreserved within the fossil, published today in Science, pegs the jawbone as belonging to a Denisovan, a close cousin of Neanderthals that lived from roughly 400,000 years to 30,000 years ago. Previous confirmed fossils of the enigmatic hominin were found only in the cold, high-altitude climes of Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau. But Penghu 1, as the jawbone is known, shows Denisovans were also at home in humid lowland tropics, says Fabrice Demeter, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Copenhagen (KU) who wasn’t involved with the work.

The first Denisovan remains were uncovered by Russian scientists in Siberia’s Denisova Cave in 2008.

Hmmm... that's the same year this jawbone was found.

View attachment 363494

If everything else is correct (???), it was near the peak of the Wisconsin Glacier Age. How warm could it be at Taiwan (25°N) at that time? Also, the current island of PengHu was about a 1500 ft high mountain at that time. Would people evacuated from the ice-covered north and migrated toward south?