March 2, 2024Neanderthals may have vanished 40,000 years ago, but they are no strangers to us today. But there’s no such familiarity with the Denisovans, a group of humans that split from the Neanderthal line and survived for hundreds of thousands of years before going extinct. In a new review paper, anthropologists tally all of the fossils that have been clearly identified as Denisovan since the first discovery in 2010. Nevertheless, many scientists are growing increasingly fascinated by Denisovans. “I find Denisovans way more interesting,” said Emilia Huerta-Sánchez, a geneticist at Brown University.

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Persons: Kevin Bacon, ”, Janet Kelso, Max Planck, Denisovans, Emilia Huerta, Sánchez Organizations: Max, Max Planck Institute, Brown University Locations: Africa, Leipzig, Germany