Researchers reconstruct face from remains of ancient ancestor

The Denisovans are thought to have died out 50,000 years ago, but their faces has been revealed for the first time.

The Denisovans are one of the most mysterious ancient human relatives but a group of scientists have managed to create a portrait of what they may have looked like.

The reconstructions of a young female Denisovan are based on remains from a Siberian cave and could help us learn more about our ancestors.

DNA from a fossilised finger found in the Denisova cave in Siberia’s Altai mountains was used to create a profile of what the species may have looked like.

The species was only discovered in the past decade and is generally accepted to have died out around 50,000 years ago.

The reconstruction work by Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been described as “exciting” and “extraordinary” because it shows that Denisovans looked pretty similar to Neanderthals, as was expected.

However, they had wider heads and jaws that stuck out more.

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Scientists say they’ve recreated a skull and some other features of a mysterious, extinct cousin of Neanderthals by analysing its DNA. Picture: Maayan Harel/Hebrew University in Jerusalem via AP

WHO WERE THE DENISOVANS? HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW …

• The Denisovans are a extinct group of archaic humans

• Evidence of them was first found in the form of a finger bone in the Denisova Cave in Siberia back in 2008

• Since then, other remains including three large teeth and a jaw bone have been found

• Analysis of the remains suggests Denisovans shared a common origin with Neanderthals

• They are thought to have lived in and around Siberia and Southeast Asia

• Denisovan DNA has been found in some modern humans so it is believed that they interbred with ancestors of modern humans and lived amongst them

• The Denisovans are so mysterious that scientists can’t really agree upon when they lived and died out

• Some scientists think that they died out around 50,000 years ago, while others think they could have mated with modern humans as early as 15,000 years ago

The work is also interesting because we don’t know much about Denisovans apart from that they lived tens of thousands of years ago in Asia.

Liran Carmel, a researcher on the team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: “One of the most exciting moments happened a few weeks after we sent our paper to peer-review.

“Scientists had discovered a Denisovan jawbone! We quickly compared this bone to our predictions and found that it matched perfectly.

“Without even planning on it, we received independent confirmation of our ability to reconstruct whole anatomical profiles using DNA that we extracted from a single fingertip.”

Other traits of the Denisovans that the researchers predicted include long faces, large pelvises and a large dental arch.

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Picture: Maayan Harel/Hebrew University in Jerusalem via AP

Genetic analysis of remains helped the researchers to determine these features because certain genes decide what form a skeleton will grow in.

The scientists think that their research could be used to explain how Denisovans survived the extremely cold weather in Siberia.

Carmel concluded: “There is still a long way to go to answer these questions but our study sheds light on how Denisovans adapted to their environment and highlights traits that are unique to modern humans and which separate us from these other, now extinct, human groups.”

This research has been published in the scientific journal Cell.

In other archaeology news, the ancient face of a Neolithic woman has been painstakingly recreated by archaeologists and sculptors using a 7500-year-old skull.

A gruesome burial pit from a “city drowned in blood” reveals how Mongols butchered entire families during European invasion.

And, Tutankhamun’s “cursed” golden sarcophagus has been pictured outside the boy king’s tomb for the first time ever.

This article first appeared in The Sun and has been republished with permission.