Scientists find the first known Denisovan forearm bone

For fifteen years, almost everything scientists knew about Denisovans, a mysterious relative of modern humans, came from DNA rather than bones. That has now changed, thanks to a site called Bianfu Cave in China's Yunnan province.

Researchers screened more than 60,000 bone fragments from the cave, narrowing them down through molecular screening and protein sequencing until they identified two skull fragments, four teeth, and a forearm bone known as a radius, the first ever found for a Denisovan.

The radius, dated to roughly 134,000 to 148,000 years old, shows that the muscle attachment point in a Denisovan's forearm sat farther back than in modern humans, suggesting they could generate more force when twisting their arm. Alongside the fossils, researchers also catalogued more than 1,300 stone tools.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, make Bianfu Cave the richest known Denisovan site outside Siberia, and give scientists their first real look at what these ancient relatives' arms actually looked like.