Episode 45 - What Is Going on with Those Denisovans?!

This week, Anna and Amber sit down to chat about the Denisovans, the human ancestors we didn't know we had until recently. Learn about what evidence we have for Denisovans, the traits for which we can thank them, and some of the mysteries that remain. Come for big reveals about what's in human DNA, stay for ample use of phrases like "bouts of interbreeding."

To learn more, check out:

Meet the Denisovans (Discover)

First Confirmed Denisovan Skull Piece Found (Sapiens)

The first known fossil of a Denisovan skull has been found in a Siberian cave (ScienceNews)

Denisovans, A Mysterious Kind Of Ancient Humans, Are Traced To Tibet (NPR)

Found: First Tibetan Evidence of Neanderthal Cousins, the Denisovans (LiveScience)

Why Am I Denisovan? (National Geographic)

We may have bred with Denisovans much more recently than we thought (New Scientist)

A world map of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in modern humans (ScienceDaily)

DNA Shows The Denisovans Have At Least 3 Distinct Branches (Tech Times)

Mum’s a Neanderthal, Dad’s a Denisovan: First discovery of an ancient-human hybrid (Nature)

Denisovans and Neanderthals Interbred in a Giant Cave (Jstor Daily)

Bone suggests ‘Red Deer Cave people’ a mysterious species of human (The Conversation)

Photo credit: Replica of a Denisovan finger bone fragment, originally found in Denisova Cave in 2008, at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels, Belgium. Photo by Thilo Parg/Wikimedia Commons, licensed via CC BY-SA 3.0.