1. Name (more precisely, working title) - “Denisova 11”.

2. Source of information: nuclear DNA obtained from 175 mg of bone powder. Find: bone fragment 24.7 × 8.4 mm, location in the skeleton has not been established.

3. The girl’s age is over 13 years (as stated in one of the scientific reports, “the age of the bone remains is more than 13 years before death”).

4. Father is Denisovan, mother is Neanderthal.

5. The parents of “Denisova 11” are not purebred representatives of their subspecies; they carry the genetic trace of previous crossings, which is reflected in the girl’s genome. So, her father had at least one Neanderthal ancestor during his life.

6. The ancestors of “Denisova 11” along the Neanderthal line were probably relatively recent (about 20,000 years before the girl’s life) newcomers from Europe: in particular, their genetic connection can be traced with the inhabitants of the Vindija cave (Croatia).

7. 1.2% of Denisova 11 DNA fragments correspond to modern humans, 38.6% to Neanderthals and 42.3% to Denisovans.

Professor Svante Paabo, head of the laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Human History (Leipzig, Germany):

– And to this day we are all hybrids. In the genome of individual groups modern people 10-15% of Neanderthal genes and 1.5-5% of Denisovan genes can be found. Even such a low proportion affects, according to one of our hypotheses, adaptability to high altitude inhabitants of Tibet and to the cold - Greenland. Why not more? First, populations of Homo subspecies did not meet and interbreed as often. Secondly, there was selective selection directed against hybridization.

Vivian Sloan, employee of the laboratory of Svante Pääbo:

– We carefully checked all our results and the purity of their receipt. Versions such as mixing of material in the laboratory, errors in analytical equipment, and even the consequences of cannibalism were excluded. We can confidently say: the genome of the daughter of Denisovan man and a representative of the Altai Neanderthal population was sequenced(which separated more than 390,000 years ago - website note)

It has also been established that crossing of different subspecies of hominids in the Pleistocene era occurred almost every time different populations came into contact.

Location of Denisova Cave

Scientific director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS, Academician Anatoly Panteleevich Derevyanko:

Neanderthals also lived in the cave along with the Denisovans. The question naturally arises: how did they coexist? Recently I put forward two hypotheses.

The first is antagonistic, when two species compete to the point of mutual destruction and even consumption of their own kind as food. This is supported by the absence of Neanderthal industrial objects in Denisova Cave - only fragments of their remains. Although, I note that in the Okladnikov Cave, located 45 km (as the crow flies), a sufficient number of Neanderthal stone products were found, more archaic compared to Denisovan ones.

The second hypothesis is that there was a complementary relationship between Neanderthals and Denisovan people, even to the point of interbreeding. This option is supported by the last discovery included in the subtitle.

In the same eleventh layer in 2016, a fragment of human bone was found, so tiny that it has not yet been possible to establish its exact place in the skeleton. But sequencing of the DNA obtained from the bone showed that this girl, no younger than 13 years old, was a hybrid of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan, and in the fourth generation. Note that mixed-species offspring (for example, horses and donkeys) are not capable of further reproduction. Since Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred more than once, it follows that they belong to the same biological species, despite all the already established cultural and genetic differences.

This is an extremely important fundamental discovery. Denisovans and Neanderthals also interbred with early humans modern look, formed in Africa 200–150 thousand years ago. All this testifies to unity biological species, settled in Africa and Eurasia. And this attracts more and more of our colleagues from all over the world to Denisova Cave: archaeologists, geneticists, anthropologists, paleontologists.

Did this discovery bring new knowledge about appearance Denisovans? Not yet. Genetic analysis provides incomplete information, since not all parts of the ancient genome can be restored. It all depends on the length of the chain and its sections that can be explored. So, about the first girl from Denisova Cave, we only know that she was dark-skinned and brown-eyed, plus her approximate age.

Remember we discussed the issue. Let's continue studying this topic.

The Altai Mountains are located in such a way that it was simply impossible for numerous migrations of a wide variety of bipedal creatures to go around them. Nearby is a vast strip of steppes running from the Yenisei to the Carpathians, which served as the real “gateway of nations” (usually that part of it that ran between the Ural ridge and the Caspian Sea was called that way). On the other side of the mountains are deserts, opening the way to the Far East and Southeast Asia. Altai contains many interesting and mysterious places, including the famous Denisova Cave with a large grotto - it is always dry in it, and the hole under the dome gives light during the day and serves as a natural chimney.

And this is what was found there...

It is not surprising that representatives of the genus Homo have found refuge in Denisova Cave for hundreds of thousands of years, starting with the Neanderthals, who settled there 280,000 years ago. People of the historical era also left traces there - the Turks and Huns, the creators of vast nomadic empires. During this entire gigantic period of time, people lived here, made tools, ate or butchered animals caught by hunting - the bones of a yak, donkey, rhinoceros, and hyena were discovered in the Denisova Cave.

Thus, two dozen cultural layers grew above the natural floor of the cave, filled with artifacts - evidence of the life of a variety of inhabitants. To explore these cultural layers (and excavations here began in the second half of the 1970s), archaeologists had to dig a deep hole. And then in 2008, a famous discovery happened: in Denisova Cave, among a huge array of cultural layers, a tiny bone was found - as it later turned out, the phalanx of the little finger of a young female. We can talk about enormous scientific luck, since this find, plus several other small bone fragments (two teeth, possibly a phalanx of a toe) became the only evidence of the existence of a hitherto unknown species of people on Earth.

20 cultural layers grew on the floor of Denisova Cave. The discovery of small skeletal remains of Denisovans in this massif is a great success.

The surprises continued in 2012, when the work of a group of scientists from the Leipzig Max Planck Institute was published (the team leader was Swedish biologist Svante Peebo). Scientists were able to accurately sequence both the nuclear and mitochondrial DNA of the Denisovans, as our extinct cousins ​​are now called, and it became possible to talk in detail about the relationship of the people who lived in the Denisova Cave 75-30 thousand years ago with Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. Sequencing of “Denisovan” DNA became feasible only with the emergence of new technologies for working with genetic material, which is usually presented in fragments in fossil bones. In particular, the method was applied artificial restoration double-stranded DNA in cases where one of the strands in the original sample was damaged.

The diagram shows the family tree of sapiens, Denisovans and Neanderthals, as well as great apes, going back to a common ancestor. The threshold after which 24 pairs of monkey chromosomes after fusion resulted in 23 pairs of human chromosomes is shown in red.

As for the relationship, it was found that, according to mtDNA analysis, the difference between modern humans and Denisovans is 385 nucleotides, while the difference between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals is 202 nucleotides. Nuclear DNA analysis has shown that Neanderthals and Denisovans had a common ancestor who lived perhaps about 700,000 years ago (the dating is extremely rough). The ancestor of this branch and Homo sapiens - the so-called “preceding man” (Homo antecessor) lived on Earth more than a million years ago.

So, everything is clear with the relationship? Not really. It is known that Homo sapiens appeared about 200,000 years ago on the African continent. One and a half hundred thousand years later, a small population of sapiens (about 40-50 thousand people) decided to leave their African home and went to the Middle East, and the descendants of these people populated all continents except Antarctica. Thus, all the original inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds with the exception of Africa - that is, white Europeans, Chinese, Eskimos, American Indians - are descendants of fugitives from Africa, the number of which is comparable to the population of the regional center. At the same time, sapiens were, of course, not the first representatives of the genus Homo to go to Eurasia. Before this, Homo erectus traveled there, giving offspring in Europe in the form of Heidelberg man or in Asia in the form of Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus.

Arriving in the Middle East, sapiens met the Neanderthals who had arrived there earlier. Then something happened that in science is called hybridization: our ancestors and Neanderthals began to interbreed, and they had offspring. Presumably this was the first, but not the only wave of hybridization of these species. The second episode, according to genetic data, could have occurred on Far East with participation from Homo sapiens ancestors of the Chinese and American Indians. Today, the percentage of Neanderthal genes in the genome of representatives of different peoples of the world is 1−4%.

After it was possible to obtain accurate data on the Denisovans genome, another important discovery was made. It turned out that Denisovans could not avoid hybridization with Homo sapiens. Living near the “gate of nations,” they met with a certain branch of the ancestors of modern people, which then marched towards Southeast Asia, or rather, its island part. Melanesians, representatives of the Australoid race (among us the Papuans are the most famous) contain up to 6% of “Denisovan” genes in their genome. Although it is not at all necessary that hybridization occurred specifically in Altai, it is now believed that this species of people had a wide habitat in Eurasia.

Thus, some modern people, who live, however, mainly in one corner of the planet, may consider themselves closer to the Denisovans than everyone else. However, there is another mystery presented by the find in Denisova Cave. It seems that on its basis one can assume the existence of another species of people, from which not even a tiny bone has yet been found.

Neanderthals and Denisovans constitute two branches descended from a common ancestor, but, as already said, Homo neanderthalensis is genetically noticeably closer to sapiens than Denisovans. Moreover, the “Denisovan” genome contains approximately 1% of genes that Neanderthals do not have and which are noticeably older than the rest: this was noted by the American biologist David Reich from Harvard Medical School. It remains to be assumed that hybridization with sapiens was not the only one that “Denisovan” people underwent. Now it is suggested that along their historical path they could interbreed with other species of the genus Homo.

The researchers noticed that the tooth found in Denisova Cave, which, like a fragment of the phalanx, became the subject of genetic analysis, is unusually large, which is typical for earlier hominids. This may mean that the crossing partners were representatives of some species of people who came out of Africa even earlier than sapiens, and Denisovans, and Neanderthals. Perhaps nothing is still known about this species, but it can be assumed that they were, for example, representatives of the Heidelberg man. What's stopping you from checking this? Lack of sequenced genome of the latter.

We have to remind again that the isolation of high-quality genetic information from the fossil remains of Denisovans was a unique case and a great scientific success. The same applies to the genes of Neanderthals. The fact is that both of them lived in relatively cold and damp areas of the world, and the climate ensured the preservation of complex molecules inside the bone remains. In hot climates where the sun burned the bones white, the DNA was almost completely destroyed.

Discoveries are yet to come

Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of fossil material found so far, it is very difficult to say how different Denisovans were from modern people in appearance and behavior, or whether they had, for example, speech. Differences in the genome of sapiens and Denisovans may indicate that certain mutations that are responsible in our genome for important functions associated with the development of the nervous system and brain function are not noted in Denisovans, as in representatives of another branch of humanity. This may mean that these extinct people did not possess a human mind in the full sense, which, of course, did not prevent them from leaving offspring together with sapiens.

It would seem that Homo florensiensis fits into the same series of “crypto-people” - the remains of representatives of this species were discovered in 2003 in the Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores. These creatures, which were immediately dubbed “hobbits,” were distinguished by their small stature (1 m) and extremely small brain volume - 400 cm3. This is smaller than that of a chimpanzee and comparable to the brain volume of Australopithecus afarensis, which did not belong to the genus Homo. Thus, the Floresan dwarfs were obviously at a lower stage of development than Neanderthals or Denisovans. Yes, they produced primitive stone tools and probably used them for hunting and construction, but Australopithecus was also capable of creating stone tools. According to one of the existing hypotheses, Homo florensiensis could be a descendant of Pithecanthropus, a fairly developed creature that found itself in conditions of island isolation (and the modern and fossil fauna of the island of Flores is filled with evolutionary curiosities) and there modified, or, one might say, degraded. The last term, however, is hardly appropriate, since it presupposes an understanding of evolution as a constant movement from lower to higher forms, while in reality only adaptation by the method of natural selection matters. Now, however, the hypothesis of a diminished and stupid Pithecanthropus is not shared by everyone, suspecting some less developed creatures like the same Australopithecus in the ancestors of the “hobbits”.

However there is one more interesting example, when traces of some mysterious humanoid creature are clearly visible in the genome of modern humans. True, we are again talking about a specific group of Homo sapiens.

Africa is a true storehouse of genetic diversity. If we remember that non-African humanity goes back to several tens of thousands of Africans who went to Eurasia, it is not difficult to assume that the genetic differences between a German and a Japanese may turn out to be much smaller than between representatives of different African peoples, where sapiens developed over 200,000 years. But the Pygmies of western Cameroon and the Hadza and Sandawe peoples of Tanzania are a special case. As you can see from the geographical map, Tanzania and Cameroon are separated by a considerable distance, but representatives of the three mentioned peoples share common DNA sections, and this indicates, firstly, common ancestors who lived at the latest 40,000 years ago, and, secondly , to the fact that these same ancestors were already owners of the above-mentioned plots. A group of biologists from the University of Pennsylvania, led by Sarah Tishkoff, published a paper in the journal Cell, which stated that sections of DNA common to three peoples are traces of hybridization with a hitherto unknown species of people who lived in Africa 80-20 thousand years ago, which descended from common ancestor with Neanderthals approximately 1.2 million years ago.

The only problem is that, again, not a single bone was found from these hypothetical people - geneticists again made a discovery “at the tip of a pen.” Indirect confirmation that even in the recent era there could have been some species of people not related to sapiens in Africa can be found in Iwo-Eleru (Nigeria). A rather primitive skull was discovered there, dating, however, to the era of the unchallenged rule of sapiens - 13,000 years ago. In other words, there is a problem of a certain discrepancy between the calculations of geneticists and the findings of paleoanthropologists working “in the field.”

But let's not forget: if there had not been luck with the discovery of tiny bone fragments in the Denisova Cave, no one today would have known about any Denisovans at all.

The Australians were the first

The map on the adjacent page shows the migration routes of the ancestors of different groups of Homo sapiens across Eurasia. As you can see, the ancestors of the Australian Aborigines and Papuans were in the same group of people from Africa as the ancestors of the future population of Europe and Asia - they together separated from their African relatives 75-62 thousand years ago. However, the “Australian” branch (red arrow) went to Eurasia first, even before the “Europeans” separated from the “Asians” (in particular, the ancestral line of the Chinese - Han) 38-25 thousand years ago. The second wave of migration, passing through Western Asia, India and Indochina, displaced and absorbed representatives of the “Australian” branch on the continent, and the Australian aborigines and Papuans found themselves isolated for 50,000 years. The map also shows hybridization with Denisovans.

Genetic Clarity

The honor of scientific proof of hybridization between Homo sapiens, on the one hand, and Denisovans, as well as Neanderthals, on the other, belongs to a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) under the leadership of the Swedish geneticist Svante Peebo. Based on bone remains from Croatia, researchers were able to read the Neanderthal genome in 2010. In 2012, similar work was carried out on the Denisovan genome. The “Denisovo” genome was sequenced with an average coverage of 31 (99.4% of nucleotides were read at least 10 times, 92.9% at least 20). Thus, the quality of the genome read corresponds to the sequenced genomes of modern people, which made it possible to make comparisons.

Here's some more interesting information.

An unusual variant of the gene involved in the body's production of hemoglobin is widespread among Tibetans. This feature allows them to live in the mountains at an altitude of more than 4500 meters above sea level. A study published in the journal Nature shows that Tibetans inherited this gene from Denisovan man, a species (or subspecies) of the genus related to modern humans and Neanderthals Homo. The Denisovan people, who became extinct 40-50 thousand years ago, are known from bone remains found in the Denisova Cave in Altai.

“We have very clear evidence that this version of the gene came from Denisovans,” said Rasmus Nielsen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study. “This shows that humans have evolved and adapted to new conditions by receiving genes from other species.”

A gene known as EPAS1 is activated when oxygen levels in the blood drop, increasing the production of red blood cells. This helps a person cope with peak loads. EPAS1 is even called the “super athlete” gene, as some variants can help athletes quickly increase their hemoglobin levels, increasing endurance. At high altitudes, the normal mode of operation of this gene turns out to be destructive. An increase in the number of red blood cells in the blood leads there to hypertension and heart attacks, as well as the birth of children with lower birth weights and an increase in infant mortality. A gene variant present in Tibetans avoids these side effects, since it is less active.

In 2010, research, also conducted by Rasus Nielsen and his team, showed that when the ancestors of the current Tibetans settled the Tibetan Plateau, more than 2.75 thousand years ago, their numbers decreased sharply, and then began to grow thanks to that part of the population that had genetic features that make life in the mountains easier, including a special variant of the EPAS1 gene.

“We found that part of the EPAS1 gene in Tibetans is almost identical to the Denisovans and is very different from all other people,” says Nielsen. Nuclear DNA extracted from a Denisovan finger bone was compared with genetic material from Chinese and Tibetan people provided by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Nielsen suggests that modern humans, after leaving Africa, interbred with Denisovan people in Eurasia. Their descendants subsequently settled China and Tibet

sources
The article “Cryptohumanity” was published in the magazine “Popular Mechanics” (No. 141, July 2014).
http://www.popmech.ru/science/17225-denisovskiy-chelovek/#full
http://elementy.ru/lib/431435
http://paranormal-news.ru/news/denisovskij_chelovek_skreshhivalsja_s_neizvestnym_nauke_vidom_cheloveka/2013-11-21-8087
http://polit.ru/news/2014/07/03/ps_epas1/

Here's some more information for you, for example:

MOSCOW, November 1 - RIA Novosti. Residents of the countries of Southeast Asia and the southern part of China received the most genes from the Denisovans, who separated from the common tree of humanity 400-800 thousand years ago, compared to other people, Swedish paleontologists report in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Russian and European archaeologists under the leadership of the German scientist Svante Paabo in 2010 discovered remains that inhabited Southern Siberia and Central Asia. This species of human ancestor coexisted with Neanderthals and the forerunners of modern humans.

In December 2010, the researchers who made the discovery reconstructed the genome of these people and compared it with the DNA of modern humans and Neanderthals. They found that “Denisovan man” most “inherited” the genomes of modern Polynesians and inhabitants of some islands of the Malay Archipelago. In August 2011, scientists led by Peter Parham from Stanford University in the USA found that Denisovans and Neanderthals passed on genes responsible for the functioning of the immune system to the ancestors of modern Europeans.

Scientists Pontus Skoglund and Mattias Jakobsson from Uppsala University (Sweden) compared the genomes of modern people with the recovered DNA of ancient people and built several computer models describing the path of migration of the ancestors of modern humans and their encounters with the Denisovans.

Swedish scientists have suggested that even the lightest genetic “traces” of Denisovans can be detected by tracking single-nucleotide polymorphisms - differences in DNA of one “letter”-nucleotide - in the genomes of modern Asians and in the recovered DNA of “cavemen”.

As a result of the comparison, two blocks of data were obtained, one of which contained information about the similarities between modern and “Denisovan” humans, and the second contained matching regions in the genomes of Neanderthals and “Denisovans”. Comparison of these blocks confirms Paabo's hypothesis, according to which humanity can be divided into three groups: Polynesians, black aborigines of Africa and inhabitants of the rest of the world.

Then paleontologists compared the habitat of modern people and the similarity of their genomes with the Denisovan one. It turned out that two of the three populations - oceanic and non-African - contained “traces” of “Denisovans”. At the same time, the number and “depth” of traces in the genomes of the inhabitants of Europe, Asia and the aborigines of North and South America differed markedly, which was not recorded by Paabo and his colleagues.

According to researchers, residents of East and Southeast Asia received the most genes. Europeans and people from the Middle East and Central Asia were less related to the Denisovans, and African aborigines apparently did not come into contact with this type of "caveman."

Scientists suggest that the first contacts between the Denisovan culture and the Asian Cro-Magnon tribes occurred approximately 30 thousand years ago, after the migration of the future ancestors of the Indians to North America. This is confirmed by the fact that the Indians are about as far from the Denisovans as the Europeans.

The closest “relatives” of the “Denisovans,” in addition to the Papuans and other oceanic peoples, live in southern China and the countries of Southeast Asia. Of these, the people closest to the “Denisovan man” are the Yi Zu people, living in the southern provinces of China. Representatives of this ethnic group turned out to be a little closer to the “Denisovans” compared to some oceanic peoples - in particular, the Papuans from the island of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.

Using the data obtained, Skoglund and Jacobson built several models of human settlement throughout the Old World, which took into account or ignored the contact of the ancestors of modern “migrant” people from Africa with local aborigines - Neanderthals and Denisovans. The modeling confirmed that the modern gene spread could only have arisen if the ancestors of Cro-Magnons interbred with Denisovans and Neanderthals.

An international team of scientists, with the participation of Russian researchers, obtained evidence of the earliest visits to Denisova Cave in Altai by people. According to the results of the analysis, Neanderthals began to appear here 200 thousand years ago, and Denisovans - about 300 thousand, which is much higher than previous estimates. Two articles were published in the journal Nature (), ().

Denisova Cave– a unique natural and archaeological monument of Altai. The cave is located on the right bank of the Anui River in the Altai Territory.

If you pick up a map and carefully examine the intersection of the borders of the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic, then on the right bank of the Anui River you can see the world famous Denisova Cave. Two settlements located next to it are called Cherny Anui and Soloneshnoye. The absolute height of the cave above the sea is more than 600 meters, and above the current river level - about 28 meters.

Denisova Cave is a unique natural and archaeological monument of Altai, which was proposed to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The corresponding decision will be made before 2021.

It was here that the remains of Denisovan man, an extinct species of people closely related to us, were first discovered. And the DNA of the girl from the cave clearly proved the existence of hybrids various types of people. However, accurate dating of the presence of people at this site is extremely difficult to obtain due to the complex structure of the layers at its bottom.

In two new papers, scientists write that they used the most modern methods determining the age of samples. As a result, they came to the conclusion that Denisovans appeared in the cave approximately 287 thousand years ago and were here intermittently until 55 thousand years ago. This dating shifts the time of their appearance by about 100 thousand years relative to previous estimates, and also refutes the conclusions of some other works, according to which our relatives were last here about 30 thousand years ago. Neanderthals also visited the cave several times, but they appeared later (193 thousand years ago) and stopped visiting it earlier (97 thousand years ago).

Quote:

The long-awaited research is based on the analysis of bones, artefacts and sediments found in the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, which is littered with ancient human remains. They provide the first detailed history of the 300,000-year habitation of various groups of ancient people at the site.

Now we can tell the whole story of this cave, not just bits and pieces," says Zenobia Jacobs, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia, who co-led one of the studies."

Scientists emphasize that most of the remains are older than 50 thousand years. And this is the threshold for radiocarbon analysis when working with organic materials. Other dating methods could not provide a clear picture because there was not a good enough map of the geological layers of the cave. The layers have shifted over thousands of years due to animal burrows and human activity. Because of this, remains and material culture artifacts can no longer be found in sediments of similar age.

Quote:

"To overcome these difficulties, the researchers, led by Jacobs and Richard Roberts, a geochronologist from Wollongong, used a dating method that determines when parts of the soil were last exposed to light. This allowed them to determine the age of those areas of the cave in which cultural layers of soil were disturbed and where the age of the adjacent part of the soil was highly divergent. They may then not include these areas when determining the age of sediments in the same geological layer as the hominin and tool remains.

The first signs that any ancient human species inhabited the cave are stone tools that date back to around 300,000 years ago - excavations began in the 1980s (see "Cave kin"). But researchers couldn't figure out whether Denisovans or Neanderthals made them. The Denisovan cave remains […] date from 200,000 years ago to 55,000 years ago, while the oldest Neanderthal remains are about 190,000 years old and the youngest about 100,000 years old."

The optical dating method used in the new work determines the time when the feldspar crystal was last exposed to light. The authors measured about 280,000 grains of the mineral obtained from more than 100 samples collected from stone tools and remains found in the cave. This made it possible to construct a detailed age map of all layers of layers. Data for the youngest layers were compared with the results of radiocarbon dating. Scientists call those obtained using a combination of dating methods very reliable.

New work also leads to the emergence of a new mystery - Paleolithic artifacts ranging in age from 43 thousand to 49 thousand years were found in the cave. Previously, scientists thought that they were made by the Denisovans, but now it turns out that they had already disappeared by that time. It is possible that the immediate ancestors of modern people, who ended up in the cave almost immediately after the Denisovans and could even hasten their departure, are related to the creation of these objects. However, the remains of such people were not found.

Cave exploration

The cave was first explored by the Siberian paleontologist Nikolai Ovodov. In 1978, he took measurements, and then archaeologists under the leadership of Academician A.P. became interested in it. Okladnikova. Since 1982, scientists from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been comprehensively studying Denisova Cave on their own. For more than 30 years, archaeologists have been conducting excavations, discovering new things unknown to science. historical facts. Scientists from major scientific laboratories in other countries: the USA, Belgium, Japan, and Korea were also involved in the research.

The original field camp has grown and been reborn into a stationary research laboratory in which ancient objects found at the excavation site are studied. Every year, almost a hundred archaeological scientists, together with scientists from other specialties, carry out hard, painstaking work to uncover the secrets of the cave.

Denisova Cave was first mentioned in books of the 19th century. Missionary priest V.I. Verbitsky described it as an object not worthy of attention.

In 1926, artist N.K. Roerich visited Denisova Cave and left the following entry in his travel diary “Altai - Himalayas”: “Near Black Anui on Karakol there are caves. Their depth and extent are unknown. There are bones and inscriptions there.”

The season of public lectures at ICG continues. And quite recently, at the next one, a leading researcher in the inter-institutional sector of molecular paleogenetics, Ph.D. Alexander Pilipenko told what's new in this scientific field.

Today, a large amount of data has been accumulated about human ancestors, but science still has many more questions than answers already received. It is known that the cradle of humanity is Africa; it is here that all the early representatives of the genus Homo were formed. And at least twice, even before the appearance of Homo sapiens, representatives of earlier species (forms of Homo erectus) left this continent and settled around the planet.

The first migration wave took place about one and a half million years ago, its archaeological sites have been found throughout Asia and in some places in Europe. The second wave happened about a million years later: then human ancestors managed to move further north and colonize a noticeable part of continental Europe.

Over the millennia, the descendants of these “migrants” continued to evolve outside of Africa, giving rise to new varieties of the ancestors of modern humans. In particular, this is how Neanderthals appeared on European territory, and similar processes took place in Asia.

And then, about 200 thousand years ago, a person of a modern anatomical type - Homo sapiens - finally appeared on the historical stage. There are two main hypotheses about how this happened. The hypothesis of recent African origin states that the entire process took place on the territory of the Dark Continent, after leaving which, man displaced other forms of hominids without mixing with them. The second - the hypothesis of multiregional origin - proceeds from the fact that there was a parallel evolution of different groups of hominids, which led to the formation of different territorial groups of anatomically modern humans.

And here geneticists joined the debate between anthropologists and archaeologists. The data from the first genetic studies were in favor of the first hypothesis. But then paleogeneticists managed to sequence the Neanderthal genome and establish that 1-3% of its genes are shared by all modern people. In other words, there is a little bit of Neanderthal in each of us. Which, of course, became a powerful argument in favor of the second hypothesis. Significant, but not conclusive, due to which it is still a hypothesis and not a clearly established fact.

“The most complete Neanderthal genome that has been extracted to date was obtained from the bone of the famous Denisovskaya Cave,” recalled Alexander Pilipenko. – Although there were doubts whether it is typical of all Neanderthals or only of the eastern group.

In the same already famous cave, another species of prehistoric man was discovered - the so-called. Denisovan man, whose genome scientists also managed to sequence. The species turned out to be, although related to Neanderthals, still quite independent. And also contributed to the genotype of modern humans. It manifested itself most clearly in the population of Oceania (up to 5-6% of the genome).

This is roughly what our ideas about human evolution looked like two years ago, the speaker noted, and suggested considering what has changed during this time. And a lot of interesting things happened.

The first thing new research has called into question is the date of the origin of anatomically modern humans. Last year, an article was published about a study of the genomes of the bone remains of indigenous African natives (aka Bushmen). We were talking about relatively recent finds, whose age did not exceed 2000 years. But this sequencing made it possible to “clean up” the genome ancient man from "Eurasian admixtures". And the study of this “purified” genome, in turn, allows scientists to significantly postpone the date of human origin: from 200 to 300-350 thousand years ago. In the same year, the data of paleogeneticists was confirmed by archaeologists by independent dating of the remains of ancient humans (five individuals) and their tools found in Morocco.

– Today, active study continues of the array of ancient human remains found in the first half of the twentieth century in Africa. There were a lot of them, they were all poorly dated, and the excavation technology left much to be desired. So there is still a lot of work to be done there and it can yield interesting results,” Pilipenko concluded.

Not everything is so clear with the end date of the “African childhood” of anatomically modern man. During this period, his life took place exclusively in Africa. For a long time it was believed that it ended about 60 thousand years ago. But back in the 1930s, sites of ancient people were excavated on the territory of Israel (in the Skul and Kavzeh caves). The remains found there are dated to 80-120 thousand years old, which is significantly older than the established border of human migration outside Africa. And a few months ago, the results of dating the remains found at the third site, adjacent to the first two, were announced. Their age was 180 thousand years. Moreover, none of the scientists disputed the belonging of these bones to the species Homo sapiens. The debate is now on a different issue: whether people lived in this part of the Middle East continuously over these millennia (which means we are significantly shifting the boundary of human exit from Africa), or whether these were short-term random migrations that did not change the picture as a whole. Scientists from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who have accumulated vast experience in studying Paleolithic monuments in the Denisovskaya Cave and its environs, joined the study of these caves.

The findings of Chinese archaeological expeditions caused an even greater resonance. On the territory of their country, they found a monument related to anatomically modern people, 90-100 thousand years old. This find (unlike the Israeli ones) was considered controversial for a relatively long time. But after conducting a series of independent dating, the Chinese managed to convince at least the journal Science, where the corresponding article was published, that they were right.

“This may mean that we are not talking about some isolated outbursts of people into the adjacent territories, we are dealing with a large-scale migration that has reached Southeast Asia,” noted Alexander Pilipenko.

As a result, it is now proposed to move to a model of two large migration waves, the first was 80-120 thousand years ago, and the second 30-60 thousand years ago. The first went exclusively to the east and led to the settlement of Asia. The second wave affected both Asian and European territories. She “brought” to us the genes of Neanderthals.

It must be remembered that the studies described above do not change the existing picture of the migrations of Homo erectus, which preceded these waves and, in fact, gave rise to the Neanderthals and Denisovans. In Europe, further events were, from an evolutionary point of view, relatively boring: Neanderthals lived for thousands of years without changing much, and then, about 40 thousand years ago, the ancestors of modern humans came and in a couple of thousand years completely replaced them, having managed to mix a little during the process .

In Asia, everything was a little more varied. And the most confusing picture emerges in its northern part, in particular in Altai, where Denisovans were actively involved in the processes of interaction between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. In particular, there is evidence of the coexistence of Neanderthals and Denisovans, but material traces of humans modern type appear much later. But genetic traces of the interaction of all three species remained. And the question of the time of the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Western Siberia (as well as the disappearance of Denisovans and Neanderthals from it) remains open. But in East Asia there is no evidence of the existence of the latter two species.

Meanwhile, research over the past two years has been able to push back the time frame of residence of human ancestors in the Denisovskaya Cave by almost 100 thousand years ago. True, the question remains how continuous the Denisovans’ presence in those areas was. However, it turns out that they could interact with both waves of Homo sapiens migration if they reached Altai at the indicated time.

“Unfortunately, the genetic remains of Denisovans have not yet been found anywhere else outside the cave, and it is difficult to look for anthropological traces, since we do not know their appearance well, too few bone remains have been found,” the speaker emphasized.

And this circumstance significantly complicates the process of studying this species of ancient man, the ways of its settlement and interaction with other hominids. But the presence of Denisovan genes in modern human populations suggests that such processes took place. For example, it is their influence that explains the presence of genetic mechanisms of adaptation to high mountain conditions among modern Tibetans.

So archaeologists and paleogeneticists have a lot of work to do before we get a holistic and consistent picture of human settlement in the eastern part of Eurasia. This can be helped by new mechanisms for working with whole-genome data that are currently being created, which are aimed not so much at sequencing ancient genomes, but at a more thorough search and analysis of their “traces” in the genome of modern people. The first works based on such new algorithms were published this year. And again, these results, answering some questions, raise even more new ones that are still waiting for their researchers.

Natalya Timakova

Illustrations presented at the lecture by A.S. were used in the design of the material. Pilipenko