For a long time scientists considered that Homo sapiens was the only species of human ever to have existed. Now the fossil record has unearthed humanity’s complex evolutionary past. Since Jean-Baptise Lamark first suggested, as early as 1809, that humans had descended from apes, or hominids, over ten different ancestral groups, hominins, have been identified – the most recent being the Denisovans in 2008.
The first piece of evidence pointing towards the Denisovans’ existence was found in a cave in Siberia, Russia. It was here that a group of archaeologists excavating the Denisova cave in 2008 found a single finger bone and a molar tooth. The finger bone was split into two and sent to different laboratories, one in Germany and one in California, to see if any DNA could be extracted.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe