The more we learn about Denisovans, the less they feel like some mysterious side branch and the more they feel like a huge missing chapter of our own story.

@2:47 "a few of them have started meandering out" ...so more like Meanderthals then.

Speaking of ancient artifacts, look at that Gen 1 Gameboy on his shelf!

Ten years ago the kid and I spent a week fitting in as many caves in the Dordogne as humanly possible. We stayed in a B&B literally across the railway line from the Cro Magnon site. Unforgettable!

They may have had simple stone tools, but their graffiti definitely held more artistic value.

It is always good news when more Denisovans fossils are found. I hope scientists can obtain DNA or proteins to perform bio molecular studies and comparisons. Nice report!😊

One of my favorite artifacts is the divje babe flute (tidldibab). Its so old its fossilized. Made of cave bear femur bone by neanderthals. They made music.

The story behind the skull that they used for the reconstruction is wild. It was actually found in 1933 by a Chinese worker during a bridge construction. He hid it in a well and kept his secret until 2018, on his deathbed. At that point it was called “dragon man.” It wasn’t until they tested it in 2025 that they realized it matched the DNA from the bone found in Denisova cave.

Another human species we shared our time with is Homo luzonensis, like H. floresiensis, small, though not quite as small.

An extraordinary adventure by all standards! Exploring as many caves as possible in one week is the most beautiful challenge for history and nature enthusiasts.

The painters  of prehistoric cave paintings in places like Dordogne  often used the parts of the caves that naturally had similar shapes of animals they wanted to paint which must’ve given them a more satisfying feeling after their art was done because of a kind 3D effect of those cave walls and their paintings on them.

Ive always questioned if these different groups really recognized how different they were or if it was more like the way we view different races/cultures these days

2 hosts doubles the amount of people interrupting the 1 smart person

As a geneticist, I don't truck with your exceptionalism hypothesis.

"As far as we know" is the sign of an intellectual chad. Wish it could be more mainstream.

With all of the mountainous regions that remain in Western China, and given the fact that there are cold regions ( because of the altitude) , perhaps a cave will still be discovered that might provide samples of Denisovan DNA. We shall see!

Loved this.  So interesting.  Thank you.

Human always use a tool until it's obsolete or changed. Stone tool are very sophisticated things.

14:12
The question of "how different were we really" is actually a GREAT one. because sometimes a species will change in its outward presentation, due to shifts towards more "favorable" genes, but still be fundamentally the same species. An excellent example is, that over the period T-rex, not all tyrannosaurids but specifically T-rex existed, there is a shift in skeletal morphology. They become more gracile over time. Probably because those that were less bulky, were more energy efficient. You see similar things in homo sapiens. Early on in our species, corresponding to the individuals found at Jebel Irhoud cave, there is an ENTIRELY different skull profile. Much heavier brow ridges. Much lower foreheads, much less pronounced chins. Skulls that look MUCH more similar to Neanderthal and Denisovan samples, enough so that someone whose not trained to identify the differences, would probably mistake those skulls for Neanderthal or Denisovan. There is not really any reason to assume homo sapiens are exceptional, the assertion that we did things other hominid species couldn't do, doesn't at all factor in environmental factors, other factors about genetics, survivability, that have less to do with anything special about us, and more, global trends that effect population. Neanderthals for instance were ALWAYS were on a back foot, not because of any deficiency, but because they were cold adapted: it was fundamentally harder, where they were living, to make it from birth, to adulthood, and have a few children. We are fundamentally an African Ape species. While neanderthals are having to cope with swinging climate shifts in ice-age europe, Homo sapiens are just BOOMING because Africa is a human incubator. Beyond that, even if we hadn't fully developed to a gracile form yet, we were still a BIT more gracile than Neanderthal or Denisovan, which not only means less overall caloric intake needed to live, but things like easier childbirth, as smaller newborn skulls passed more easily through birth canals. Evidence REALLY does not show any level of superiority in material culture at the time, nor any higher capability within us. We only developed better tools once climatic conditions became so favorable that our populations could boom. Had we never showed up on the scene, one of these other species would have done the same, and it is only the fact that were were constantly churning out of the African homo-sapiens incubator,  and had minor advantages in birthrates, that let us outpace them in population intermixing.

Interesting! Good that some more of them were found.