The Penghu 1 mandible, dredged from the Penghu Channel near Taiwan around 2008, was identified as Denisovan via proteomic analysis in a 2025 study. The robust jaw suggests a large-bodied hominin, but only the mandible was recovered—no femur or tibia exist for this specimen. Denisova Cave is over 4,000 miles away, making this the southernmost confirmed Denisovan fossil. 🦴
Denisovan bones from Penghu Strait reveal they towered over contemporaries
Key facts
- In 2010, bones were dredged up from the sea floor near Taiwan in the Penghu Strait
- A mandible was tested and found to contain Denisovan proteins
- A femur and tibia were recovered, allowing height estimates via mathematical analysis
- The Denisovan individual was estimated at over 6 feet tall, while contemporary regional humans averaged approximately 5'6"
- This finding contradicted the previous belief that Denisovans were similar in height to or shorter than contemporary Homo sapiens
- The Denisova Cave is over 4,000 miles from the Penghu Strait site
Sources
anthropology.net
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repositori.upf.edu
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pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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livescience.com
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A male Denisovan mandible from Pleistocene Taiwan - Sciencescience.org
We identified a hominin mandible. Penghu 1 mandible, dated up to ~190,000 years ago, represents a Denisovan from Pleistocene Taiwan.
The problem when all the fossils are male - John Hawksjohnhawks.net
This jawbone, designated as Penghu 1, came from an unusual circumstance, dredged from the bottom of the Taiwan Strait nearly twenty years ago.
A male Denisovan mandible from Pleistocene Taiwan - PubMedpubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
We identified a hominin mandible (Penghu 1) from Taiwan (10,000 to 70,000 years ago or 130,000 to 190,000 years ago) as belonging to a male ...
Penghu 1 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Penghu 1 is a fossil jaw (mandible) belonging to an extinct hominin species of the genus Homo. It was collected from seafloor sediments of the Penghu Channel ...
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