What is it about?
Denisovans are an extinct group of humans known from only a handful of fossils. In earlier work, we used a molecular approach to reconstruct their skeletal profile. In this study, we apply that reconstruction to the fossil record, searching for remains that match the Denisovan profile, and may therefore be linked to this elusive human lineage.
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Why is it important?
Our skeletal reconstruction approach offers new insights into Denisovans and their place in human evolution. For the first time, we provide direct evidence linking several cranial fossils without molecular information to this elusive group. More broadly, our work highlights the power of genetic phenotyping as a tool for uncovering skeletal form- opening new possibilities for identifying ancient human fossils
Perspectives
I especially enjoyed working on this article because it brings together the fossil record and molecular data in a way that has never been attempted before. At every stage, we faced challenges that arose from the novelty of our approach, and overcoming them required creative solutions. My hope is that this work will inspire others to explore similar questions, and that the workflow we developed here can serve as a foundation for future studies.
Nadav Mishol
Weizmann Institute of Science
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Candidate Denisovan fossils identified through gene regulatory phenotyping, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2513968122.
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