Just read about the Denisova Cave timeline and it's not what I expected

I always thought the Denisovans were a short lived group, but a paper in Nature this week shows they lived in that Siberian cave for over 200,000 years. That's way longer than modern humans have been around as a species. It means they survived multiple ice ages in that one spot, which changes how I see their adaptability. Most coverage makes them seem like a brief footnote, but this data paints a different picture. Has anyone else seen recent studies that shift the timeline for an ancient group like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_hall55d agoMost Upvoted

Wait 200,000 years in ONE cave? That's just insane.

thea_bell5d ago

Yeah I always pictured them as this quick flash in the pan too. This really makes you rethink how tough and settled they must have been.

owens.laura5d ago

The Neanderthal genome project showed they overlapped with us for thousands of years. That's not a flash, that's a whole long chapter. They had to be incredibly resilient to last in those ice age conditions for so long. It makes their disappearance more complicated than just us showing up and winning. They weren't just passing through, they were established. Really changes the story from a quick takeover to a long, slow mixing.