Tag: Penghu Channel

Denisovans may have been much  bigger than modern humans

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All that there is – a little-finger bone – of the first Denisovan to be discovered using its DNA analysis in 2008

From Europe to Siberia, Neanderthal remains have gradually accumulated since the first 1856 find in Germany’s Neander Valley. Not only are there plenty of them, there are many near-complete skeletons. So we know a great deal about them, including their intimate relations with anatomically modern humans when the two met outside of Africa. Modern people throughout Eurasia are hybrid as a result. The Denisovans, on the other hand, were only discovered through genetic analysis in 2008 of a finger bone and a few teeth from the eponymous cave in western Siberia. Significant traces of AMH-Neanderthal interbreeding emerged in 2010 from segments of their DNA (between 1 to 4 %)  being found in living people whose ancestry lies beyond sub-Saharan Africa. Within a few months the same kind of genetic exploration revealed that AMH and Denisovans also interbred. It is now known that the DNA of indigenous people living on Pacific islands and in Australia, South, Central and East Asia and the Americas contains Denisovan segments (up to 5% in the Philippines)

Until 2019 the only tangible remains of Denisovans amounted to a finger bone, a toe bone and three molars. They were then joined by a partial lower jaw from a Tibetan cave, containing one tooth that yielded protein data that roughly matched those from Denisova Cave: not as convincing as DNA, but sufficient. About a decade ago Taiwanese fishers of the Penghu Channel between Taiwan and China began to collect ancient bones from their trawl nets, including those of hominins. In 2025 proteomic data from a Penghu hominin mandible again showed plausible Denisovan characteristics. For years Chinese palaeoanthropologists had been pondering on ancient, very robust skulls that had been discovered then hidden in the 1930s, and only recently re-emerged. One from Harbin, dubbed Homo longi or ‘Dragon Man’ had been dated at 146 ka. It had abundant dental calculus (plaque), which yielded mitochondrial DNA that matched that of Siberian Denisovan remains. At last the Denisovans had a face! There are many similar skulls in China, which had previously been assigned to H. erectus or a range of local ‘species’ but are yet to be subject to genetic and proteomic analysis. So it is possible that Denisovans may be ‘hiding’ in plain sight!

Rear and frontal views of Denisovan partial thigh bones trawled from the Penghu Channel. Left tibia, right femur. The pilaster ridge shows on the right-most image. Credit: Kaifu et al. Fig 2.

Now, once again thanks to Taiwanese trawling (and research by joint Japanese and Taiwanese consortia) two hominin upper-leg bones –a femur and a tibia – have entered the Denisovan collection from the seafloor off Penghu.  They are about 45 ka old, and assigned to two separate Denisovan individuals using the proteins of bone collagen. This is a particularly interesting development because upper leg bones are a guide to stature (Yousuke Kaifu and 11 others 2026. Denisovan leg bones from Taiwan reveal large body size. bioRxiv, preprint; DOI: 10.64898/2026.08.07.743438). The leg bones are the largest known from East Asian Pleistocene hominins: i.e. H. erectus and H. sapiens. The femur suggests an individual ~1.8 m tall, weighing around 83 kg, the tibia someone larger (1.9 m and 91 kg). Other commentators have suggested a stature of up to 2.3 m. A ridge of the femur known as its pilaster, to which major muscles are attached, is especially pronounced. This suggests enhanced mobility akin to that in modern hunter-gatherers. A separate preprint about the Penghu leg bones (Minoru Yoneda et al. 2026. Habitat and feeding ecology of a Denisovan from Late Pleistocene Taiwan. bioRxiv, preprint; DOI: 10.64898/2026.08.07.743455) uses carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the tibia to assess the individual’s diet. He/she ate a lot of terrestrial animal protein, but little in the way of aquatic resources. The late Pleistocene ages of the leg bones strongly suggests that the individuals may have encountered modern humans, and the two papers speculate on possible gene flow between Denisovans and AMH.

Let’s hope that this work encourages a flurry of research into other Pleistocene hominin bones from China. Proteomics are not as revealing as ancient DNA, but proteins are sufficiently robust to remain undecayed for hundreds of ka in climates that DNA does not survive for long

See also: Hawks, J. 2026. Legs of the last Denisovans. Personal substack, 8 August 2026.

Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals and Denisovans of East Asia

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During the Middle Palaeolithic (250 to 30 ka) anatomically modern humans (AMH) and Neanderthals were engaged in new technological developments in Europe and Africa as well as in migration and social interaction. This is reflected in the tools that they left at occupation sites and the fact that most living non-Africans carry Neanderthal DNA. One of the major cultural developments was a novel means of manufacturing stone implements. It developed from the Levallois technique that involved knapping sharp-edged flakes of hard rock from larger blocks or cores. A type of tool first found at a Neanderthal site near La Quina in France is a thick flake of stone with a broad, sharp edge that shows evidence of having been resharpened many times. Most other flake tools seem to have been ‘one-offs’ that were discarded after brief usage. The Quina version was not only durable but seems to have been multipurpose. Analysis of wear patterns on the sharpened edges suggest that they were deployed in carving wood and bone, removing fat and hair from animal hides, and butchery. Such scrapers have been found over a wide area of Europe, the Middle East and NE Asia mostly at Neanderthal sites, including the famous Denisova Cave of southern Siberia that yielded the first Denisovan DNA as well as that of Neanderthals.

Making a typical Quina scraper and related tools. The toolmaker would flake pieces of stone off the core and then carefully shape the Quina scraper. (Image credit: Pei-Yuan Xiao)

Until now, the early humans of East Asia were thought not to have proceeded beyond more rudimentary tools during the Middle Palaeolithic: in fact that archaeological designation hasn’t been applied there. Recent excavations at Longtan Cave in south-west China have forced a complete revision of that view (Ruan, Q.-J., et al. 2025. Quina lithic technology indicates diverse Late Pleistocene human dynamics in East Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 122, article e2418029122; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2418029122). The Longtan site has yielded more than fifty scrapers and the cores from which they had been struck that clearly suggest the Quina technology had been used there. They occur in cave sediments dated at between 60 and 50 ka. As yet, no human remains have been found in the same level at Longtan, although deeper levels dated at 412 ka have yielded hominin crania, mandibular fragments, and teeth, that have been suggested to be Homo erectus.

Quina type tools in East Asia may previously have been overlooked at other hominin sites in China: re-examination of archived tool collections may show they are in fact widespread. The technology could have been brought in by migrating Neanderthals, or maybe it was invented independently by local East Asian hominins. Because most living people in China carry Denisovan DNA in the genomes so perhaps that group developed the technique before interbreeding with AMH immigrants from the west. Indeed there is no reason to discard the notion that  early AMH may have imported the Quina style. A lot of work lies ahead to understand this currently unique culture at Longtan Cave. However, interpretation of another discovery published shortly after that from Longtan has spectacularly ‘stolen the thunder’ of the Qina tools, and it was made in Taiwan …

Right (top) and downward (lower) views of the partial Penghu mandible. Credit: Yousuke Kaifu University of Tokyo, Japan and Chun-Hsiang Chang Tunghai University, Taichung, from Tsutaya et al. Fig. 1 (inset)Taiwan.

About 10 years ago, Taiwanese fishers trawling in the Penghu Channel between Taiwan and China were regularly finding bones in their nets. Between 70 to 10 ka and 190 to 130 ka ago much lower sea level due to continental ice cap formation exposed the Penghu seabed. Animals and humans were thus able to move between the East Asian mainland and what is now Taiwan. The bones brought to the surface included those of elephants, water buffaloes and tigers, but one was clearly a human lower jawbone (mandible). Its shape and large molar teeth are very different from modern human mandibles and molars. A multinational team from Japan, Denmark, Taiwan and Ireland has extracted proteins from the mandible to check its genetic affinities (Tsutaya, T. and 14 others 2025. A male Denisovan mandible from Pleistocene Taiwan. Science, v. 388, p. 176-180; DOI: 10.1126/science.ads3888). Where DNA has not been preserved in bones proteomics is a useful tool, especially if results are matched with other bones that have yielded both DNA and protein sequences. In the case of the Penghu mandible, proteins from its teeth matched those of Denisovans from the Denisova Cave in Siberia which famously yielded the genome of this elusive human group. They also matched proteins from a rib found in Tibet associated with Denisovan mitochondrial DNA in cave sediments that enclosed the bones.

The three sites (Denisova, Baishiya Cave in Tibet and Penghu Channel) that have produced plausible Denisovan specimens span a large range of latitudes and altitudes. This suggests that Denisovans were capable of successful subsistence across much of East Asia. The Penghu mandible and teeth are similar to several hominin specimens from elsewhere in China that hitherto have been attributed to H. erectus. Apart from the Denisovan type locality, most of the sites have yet to be accurately dated. Having been immersed in sea water for thousands of years isotopes used in dating have been contaminated in the Panghu specimen. It can only be guessed to have lived when the seabed from which it was recovered was dry land; i.e. between 70 to 10 ka and 190 to 130 ka. China was undoubtedly occupied by Homo erectus during the early Pleistocene, but much younger fossils have been attributed to that species by Chinese palaeoanthropologists. Could it be that they are in fact Denisovans? Maybe such people independently developed the Quina knapping technique

See also: Marwick, B. 2025.  Unknown human species in East Asia used sophisticated tools at the same time Neanderthals did in Europe. Live Science, 31 March 2025; Ashworth. J. 2025. Denisovan jawbone helps to reveal appearance of ancient human species. Natural History Museum News 11 April 2025.

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