DECRYPTION – Before the hegemony of “Homo sapiens”, the men of Denisova and Neanderthals shared Eurasia.
The tooth belonged to a child who was probably no older than 5 when she died. This little girl lived in northern Laos between 130,000 and 160,000 years ago. Impossible to know the causes of his death, his body not having been found. Of her, there remains only this molar discovered in the cave of the Cobra. But what we will remember above all about this child is that she belonged to a human group that is still little known, but which for some years has come out of the shadows: the Denisovans (Nature Communications, May 17, 2022).
Read alsoNeanderthals and Homo sapiens have been eating sugars for a long time
About 100,000 years ago, at least six human groups populated the Earth. These hominins (the ancestors of current humans and their close cousins) were spread over geographical areas. Our ancestors Homo sapiens were just beginning to spread out of Africa, while Europe was the territory of Neanderthals. Asia was populated by (at least) four groups. In the Philippines, remains ofStanding man