Taiwan Strait Denisovan Bones Show 190-cm Stature and Meat-Heavy Diet
Updated
Updated · Ancient Origins · Aug 20
Taiwan Strait Denisovan Bones Show 190-cm Stature and Meat-Heavy Diet
3 articles · Updated · Ancient Origins · Aug 20
Summary
Two Denisovan leg bones from the Penghu Channel indicate individuals about 180 cm and 190 cm tall, giving one of the clearest looks yet at Denisovan body size and build.
Protein analysis tied Penghu 2 and Penghu 3 to Denisovans, while collagen from Penghu 3 dated the tibia to about 45,600-44,500 years ago—far younger than an earlier roughly 160,000-year estimate.
Isotope tests on Penghu 3 place the individual high in the food chain in a C4-dominated open landscape, suggesting a diet centered on terrestrial meat rather than substantial fish intake.
Because the bones were dredged from the seafloor 25 kilometers off southern Taiwan and the studies are still preprints, the dating, sex estimates and lifestyle inferences remain provisional.
The fossils expand a Denisovan record previously built mostly from skull, jaw, tooth and finger fragments, and may mark the youngest well-dated Denisovans yet in eastern Asia.