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Inside the cave that was home to Denisovans, Neanderthals AND Homo sapiens: Different species of early man used the same shelter for thousands of years

Geneticists studied DNA from teeth and a pinky bone from a Siberian cave
They were found to belong to individuals living thousands of years apart
It has provided clues about how this mysterious human species lived
The Denisovans are thought to be a sister species of the Neanderthal

Published: 08:33 EST, 17 September 2015 | Updated: 12:45 EST, 17 September 2015

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They are a mysterious relative of the Neanderthals who are thought to have roamed the plains of Siberia and east Asia long before modern humans arrived on the continent.

But little is known about the Denisovans, a sister species of the Neanderthals who first emerged around 200,000 years ago, as so few of their fossilised remains have been discovered.

Now researchers have unpicked a tiny piece of the puzzle about how this enigmatic human species lived - they regularly inhabited the same caves.

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A remote cave in the Altai Mountains in southern Russia (pictured) was inhabited by several separate generations of a mysterious early human species known as the Denisovans. They inhabited the cave tens of thousands of years apart, according to pioneering genetic research and dating techniques

Using pioneering DNA analysis of teeth and a fragment of pinky finger bone found at the Denisova cave in Altai Krai, in the Altai Mountains near Barnaul, Russia, the researchers have discovered they belonged to three individuals who lived there tens of thousands of years apart.

Researchers first discovered hints that a previously unknown species of early human had lived across Asia when a handful of teeth and bone fragments were found in the cave.

WHO WERE THE DENISOVANS?

The Denisovans are an extinct species of human that appear to have lived in Siberia and even down as far as southeast Asia.

Although remains of these mysterious early humans have only been discovered at one site - the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, DNA analysis has shown they were widespread.

DNA from these early humans has been found in the genomes of modern humans over a wide area of Asia, suggesting they once covered a vast range.

They are thought to have been a sister species of the Neanderthals, who lived in western Asia and Europe at around the same time.

The two species appear to have separated from a common ancestor around 200,000 years ago, while they split from the modern human Homo sapien lineage around 600,000 years ago.

Bone and ivory beads found in the Denisova Cave were discovered in the same sediment layers as the Denisovan fossils, leading to suggestions they had sophisticated tools and jewellery.

Professor Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, said: 'Layer 11 in the cave contained a Denisovan girl's fingerbone near the bottom but worked bone and ivory artefacts higher up, suggesting that the Denisovans could have made the kind of tools normally associated with modern humans.

'However, direct dating work by the Oxford Radiocarbon Unit reported at the ESHE meeting suggests the Denisovan fossil is more than 50,000 years old, while the oldest 'advanced' artefacts are about 45,000 years old, a date which matches the appearance of modern humans elsewhere in Siberia.'

DNA analysis of a fragment of pinky finger bone, which belonged to a young girl, revealed they were a species related to, but different from, Neanderthals.

Anthropologists have since puzzled over whether the cave had been a temporary shelter for a group of these Denisovans or it had formed a more permanent settlement.

The latest study, which was presented at the annual conference for the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution, found the girl appears to have lived around 50,000 years ago.

However, DNA from molar teeth belonging to two other individuals – one adult male and one young female – showed they died in the cave at least 65,000 years earlier.

Other tests have suggested the tooth of the young female could be as old as 170,000 years.

A third molar is thought to have belonged to an adult male who died around 7,500 years before the girl whose pinky was discovered.

Viviane Slon, a geneticist working for paleogeneticist Professor Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Munich, Germany, said the DNA analysis showed the Denisovans had surprisingly diverse genomes.

This perhaps suggests that rather than living in small isolated groups they were able to mix and breed to ensure they had high levels of genetic diversity.

However, Miss Slon added the age gap between the fossils could also explain much of this diversity.

She told the conference: 'These findings could indicate that Denisova Cave was inhabited by Denisovans over a prolonged period of time.

'Moreover, we find that nuclear diversity among the four Denisovans is higher than among seven Neanderthals for which nuclear DNA have previously been recovered.

'Although to date, Denisovans have been identified only from a single site, genetic diversity among members of this group is higher than among Neanderthals from a wide geographic range,' the researchers added.

The teeth and a fragment of pinky finger bone were found at the Denisova cave in Altai Krai, in the Altai Mountains near Barnaul, Russia (pictured)

A pinky finger bone from a young girl was the first evidence that the cave had been inhabited by a unique type of early human, thought to be a sister species to the Neanderthals. Named the Denisovans, it appears they repeatedly returned to the same cave over tends of thousands of years

The Denisova Cave (entrance pictured) is the only location where the remains of Denisovans have been discovered. The cave has also been repeatedly used by them, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens

The findings indicate the cave may have served as a regular shelter for the Denisovans and suggest they may have had a strong sense of 'home'.

A separate study at the Denisova cave by geologist Professor Tom Higham, an expert on radiocarbon dating, and Dr Katerina Douka, an archaeologist, both at the University of Oxford, also showed other human species used the cave.

A toe bone which belonged to a Neanderthal and was discovered in a sediment in the cave was found to be around 50,000-years-old.

Modern human remains have also been found in the cave and appear to have begun occupying the cave around 45,000 years ago.

Dr Douka said the discovery of the remains of different human species in the cave had been one of the key elements that led to theories that Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans interbred.

Professor Chris Stringer, a leading anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London who was not involved in the work, told MailOnline: 'The site of Denisova Cave is growing in importance all the time.

The researchers used pioneering genetic sequencing techniques to analyse DNA from molar teeth from Denisovans found in the cave. They found they were from individuals who lived thousands of years apart

'It probably had intermittent occupation by Denisovans between at least 140,000 years and 70,000 years ago, with Neanderthal occupation either instead of or alongside the Denisovans during the same period.

'There are many more bone and tooth fragments which could be studied for their DNA from Denisova Cave and other Siberian sites with early human occupation, and a technique which should help to identify isolated human fragments is a DNA fingerprinting method called ZooMS.

'Oxford Archaeology graduate Samantha Brown reported at the meeting that using ZooMS she had discovered a further Neanderthal bone amongst over 2000 fragments from Layers 11 and 12 in Denisova Cave.'