Sex in the Stone Age

SINOPSIS

A huge tooth and a tiny bone are the only remains of a prehistoric species believed to have once bred with humans. What were these beings like and how do they fit into our evolution?
The discoveries since 1984 of atypical human remains in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in south-western Siberia, near the border with China and Mongolia, puzzled a Max Plack (Leipzig, Germany) researchers Johannes Krause and (Swede) Svante Pääbo enough in 2008 to mobilize an international multidisciplinary team. They found it was an unknown branch of early humans besides sapiens (us now) and Neanderthal, which they named Denisovan after the spot. Comparison with another mysterious type in China and Mongolia yielding no match, but DNA comparison suggests a spread from Siberia to Australia and Melanesia (Oceania) with center in SE Asia.