Rare Denisovan Fossils and Tools Found in Chinese Cave, Two Studies Show

At least three Denisovans lived in Bianfu Cave in China's Yunnan Province between about 167,000 and 134,000 years ago, according to two new studies published September 9 in Nature. Tools and animal bones found at the site give researchers their first real look at how Denisovans lived.

Denisovans were an ancient human lineage that lived across Asia from roughly 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. Much less is known about them than about Neanderthals or modern humans. The lineage was first identified in 2010 from DNA in a tooth and a finger bone found in Siberia's Denisova Cave. Modern people in the Philippines, Tibet, New Guinea and Australia carry Denisovan DNA, but only a handful of Denisovan fossils have ever been found, compared with thousands of Neanderthal remains.

Bianfu Cave, at an abandoned quarry in Yunnan Province bordering Myanmar and Laos, was uncovered during a 2019 ecological restoration project. Later excavations recovered four teeth, two pieces of skull and an arm-bone fragment. Protein analysis and micro-CT scans confirmed a Denisovan-specific collagen variant in the remains, and the teeth matched the shape of Denisovan teeth previously found in Laos and Tibet. Denisovan fossils are now known from just five sites worldwide, with Bianfu the latest addition.

The cave also held more than 1,300 stone tools dated between 190,000 and 70,000 years old, and over 1,600 identifiable animal bones, mostly deer and other ruminants, some bearing cut and scrape marks. Researchers found no evidence that any other human species occupied the cave during that 120,000-year span, indicating Denisovans themselves made and used the tools to butcher game, cut meat and scrape hides.

Denisovan fossils found at other sites have turned up alongside marmot remains, while the butchered deer bones at Bianfu suggest the species hunted different animals in different ways depending on habitat.