For nearly two decades, the Denisovans — an extinct cousin of Neanderthals and modern humans, first identified from a pinkie bone found in a Siberian cave — have remained among the most mysterious members of the human family tree. Now, two preprints uploaded to bioRxiv last week use a pair of ancient leg bones to sketch a striking picture: Denisovans were tall, and they ate a lot of meat.
The bones, a femur and a partial tibia, were scooped up from the bottom of the Strait of Taiwan by an industrial trawler about 25 kilometers off the island's southern coast and acquired by researchers in 2010. In one preprint, a team from Japan and Taiwan shows the bones carry the protein signature of Denisovans; in the other, the chemical makeup of one bone suggests a diet heavy in terrestrial meat and light on seafood.
Based on bone length, the two individuals stood about 180 and 190 centimeters — much taller than most Neanderthals (males averaged about 168 cm) and ancient modern humans (males about 175 cm). "They were very tall! Previously we knew that Denisovans had big brains from the skull and teeth finds, and now we know they had big bodies also," says Ben Marwick of the University of Washington.
Nitrogen isotopes in the tibia match a highly carnivorous, meat-dominated diet — similar to European Neanderthals — with no sign of fish, contrasting with Homo sapiens that spread into Southeast Asia about 45,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating also delivered a surprise: the bones are only about 45,000 years old, making them the youngest well-dated Denisovans known — and placing them exactly where and when they might have met, and interbred with, our own species as it spread across Asia.
