The ancient jaw found in Taiwan belonged to the mysterious group of early human ancestors called DenuncScientists reported Thursday.
Relatively little known about the Denisovans, the extinct group of human cousins who interacted with the Neanderthals and our own species of Homo Sapiens.
“Denis stones have been very small,” only a few confirmed finds in East Asia, co -authored Takumi Tsua's study at Higher University in advanced research in Japan.
So far, the only known fossils denissored include partial skin, a few teeth and a part of the finger bone found in caves in Siberia and Tibet. Some scientists believe that the fossils found in the Laos cave may also belong to Denisovan.
The likely identification of the jaw bone from Taiwan, when Denisovan expands the region where scientists know that these ancient people once lived, said Tsoya.
Cheng-Han Sun / AP 
The partial jaw was first restored when the fishing operation jumped the sea floor on the Penh Channel near the Taiwanese Strait. After being sold to an antique shop, the collector noticed it and purchased it in 2008, and then donated it to the National Museum of Taiwan.
Based on the composition of marine invertebrates found to it, fossils were dated to the Pleistocene. But exactly what kinds of early man he belonged, he remained a mystery.
The condition of the fossil was impossible to study the ancient DNA. But recently, scientists in Taiwan, Japan and Denmark have been able to gain some incomplete jaw.
The analysis showed that some protein sequences resemble those contained in the fossil genome, extracted in Siberia. The conclusions were Posted in the journal Science.
While the new study is promising, Rick Pots, director of the project of the Human origin of the Smithson Institute, said he would like to see additional data before confirming the fossils of Taiwan as Denisan.
Pots, which did not participate in new studies, praised the study for “fantastic work to restore some proteins”. But he added that such a small material may not give a complete picture.
At least three groups of human ancestors – Denis, Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens – coexisted in Eurasia and Sometimes intertwinedResearchers say.
“We can identify the Neanderthals and Denis elements” in the DNA of some people alive today, Tsoya said.
Scientists still do not know exactly why Denisovans died out.
“We have such little archaeological and fossil information about Denisovanov that we can only think about why they have disappeared,” said Welker Reuters. “However, the strong heritage is that some human populations in Eastern and Southeast Asia today carry a denisoned family in their genomes.”