A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau

Fahu Chen^#^{1

2}, Frido Welker^#^{3

4

5}, Chuan-Chou Shen^#^{6

7}, Shara E Bailey^{4

8}, Inga Bergmann⁴, Simon Davis⁹, Huan Xia³, Hui Wang^{10

11}, Roman Fischer⁹, Sarah E Freidline⁴, Tsai-Luen Yu^{6

7}, Matthew M Skinner^{4

12}, Stefanie Stelzer^{4

13}, Guangrong Dong³, Qiaomei Fu¹⁴, Guanghui Dong³, Jian Wang³, Dongju Zhang¹⁵, Jean-Jacques Hublin^{16

17}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology (LAE), CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences and Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. fhchen@itpcas.ac.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. fhchen@itpcas.ac.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁶ High-Precision Mass Spectrometry and Environment Change Laboratory (HISPEC), Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, China.
⁷ Research Center for Future Earth, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, China.
⁸ Department of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Cultural Heritage and Museology, Institute of Archaeological Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
¹¹ Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeological Research, Lanzhou, China.
¹² School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
¹³ Department of Anatomy and Biomechanics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems an der Donau, Austria.
¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁵ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. djzhang@lzu.edu.cn.
¹⁶ Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. hublin@eva.mpg.de.
¹⁷ Chaire Internationale de Paléoanthropologie, Collège de France, Paris, France. hublin@eva.mpg.de.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 31043746
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1139-x

A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau

Fahu Chen et al. Nature. 2019 May.

. 2019 May;569(7756):409-412.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1139-x. Epub 2019 May 1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology (LAE), CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences and Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. fhchen@itpcas.ac.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. fhchen@itpcas.ac.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁶ High-Precision Mass Spectrometry and Environment Change Laboratory (HISPEC), Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, China.
⁷ Research Center for Future Earth, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, China.
⁸ Department of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Cultural Heritage and Museology, Institute of Archaeological Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
¹¹ Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeological Research, Lanzhou, China.
¹² School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
¹³ Department of Anatomy and Biomechanics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems an der Donau, Austria.
¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁵ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. djzhang@lzu.edu.cn.
¹⁶ Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. hublin@eva.mpg.de.
¹⁷ Chaire Internationale de Paléoanthropologie, Collège de France, Paris, France. hublin@eva.mpg.de.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 31043746
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1139-x

Abstract

Denisovans are members of a hominin group who are currently only known directly from fragmentary fossils, the genomes of which have been studied from a single site, Denisova Cave^1-3 in Siberia. They are also known indirectly from their genetic legacy through gene flow into several low-altitude East Asian populations^4,5 and high-altitude modern Tibetans⁶. The lack of morphologically informative Denisovan fossils hinders our ability to connect geographically and temporally dispersed fossil hominins from Asia and to understand in a coherent manner their relation to recent Asian populations. This includes understanding the genetic adaptation of humans to the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau^7,8, which was inherited from the Denisovans. Here we report a Denisovan mandible, identified by ancient protein analysis^9,10, found on the Tibetan Plateau in Baishiya Karst Cave, Xiahe, Gansu, China. We determine the mandible to be at least 160 thousand years old through U-series dating of an adhering carbonate matrix. The Xiahe specimen provides direct evidence of the Denisovans outside the Altai Mountains and its analysis unique insights into Denisovan mandibular and dental morphology. Our results indicate that archaic hominins occupied the Tibetan Plateau in the Middle Pleistocene epoch and successfully adapted to high-altitude hypoxic environments long before the regional arrival of modern Homo sapiens.

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References

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A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau

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A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau

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