Denisovans in Tibet! A Tibetan Buddhist monk picked up a fossilized half-jaw with two big molars on the floor of Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau back in 1980. Called the Xiahe mandible, it's unusually thick and robust. Ancient proteins tested in 2019 linked it to Denisovans, and later work at the same cave turned up Denisovan DNA in the sediment plus a rib dated 48,000–32,000 years ago, alongside butchered sheep, goats and carnivores. 🐑🏔️
Xiahe mandible from Baishiya Karst Cave confirmed as Denisovan
ChinaBioarchaeology
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Key facts
- In 1980 a Tibetan Buddhist monk found a fossilized right half of a lower jaw with two large attached molars on the floor of Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, and it was later passed to scientists.
- The jaw was recognized as an archaic human and named the Xiahe mandible; it is unusually thick and robust compared with modern human jaws.
- In 2019, ancient proteins extracted from the mandible showed it was Denisovan, or at least close to that lineage — the first Denisovan evidence from the Tibetan Plateau.
- Subsequent work at the same cave recovered Denisovan DNA from the sediment and a rib dated to between 48,000 and 32,000 years ago.
- Butchered animal remains found with the rib included sheep, goats, large herbivores and carnivores, indicating repeated occupation rather than a brief visit.
Sources
biorxiv.org
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biorxiv.org
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nature.com
Linked in video description
nature.com
Linked in video description
A male Denisovan mandible from Pleistocene Taiwanscience.org
by T Tsutaya · 2025 · Cited by 87 — Second, with the addition of molecular evidence for Penghu 1, there are now two mandibles with teeth (Xiahe 1 and Penghu 1) and two molars ( ...
A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the ...researchprofiles.ku.dk
Here we report a Denisovan mandible, identified by ancient protein analysis9,10, found on the Tibetan Plateau in Baishiya Karst Cave, Xiahe, Gansu, China.
late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan ...kar.kent.ac.uk
by F Chen · 2019 · Cited by 680 — The Xiahe mandible is the first Denisovan found outside of Denisova Cave1,11. The minimum MP age of the mandible makes the Xiahe mandible comparable in age to ...
Xiahe mandibleen.wikipedia.org
By the use of palaeoproteomic analysis, it is the first confirmed discovery of a Denisovan fossil outside of Denisova Cave, and was the most complete confirmed ...
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