Denisovans may have dwarfed other ancient humans
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- Yousuke Kaifu at the University of Tokyo identified two Denisovan leg bones — Penghu 2 (180 cm, ~83 kg) and Penghu 3 (190 cm, ~91 kg) — dredged from Taiwan's Penghu Channel, ranking among the largest Pleistocene Homo leg bones on record.
- A simultaneous study by Kaifu's team radiocarbon-dated the fossils to between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago, placing them later than most previously studied Denisovan remains.
- Denisovans lived in Asia until roughly 30,000 years ago, and only sparse fossils have surfaced since the group was first identified in 2010, leaving large gaps in what is known about their biology.
- Isotope analysis of Penghu 3 points to a savannah or grassland environment and a diet heavy in animal protein, with no evidence of marine or freshwater food consumption.
- The leg bones share small anatomical features with Homo sapiens — including a prominent bony ridge called a pilaster on the thigh bone — which Kaifu suggests could indicate interbreeding with modern humans or adaptation to a nomadic lifestyle.
- Adam Brumm of Griffith University called the Taiwanese Denisovans "big and imposing humans," compared Penghu 3's frame to footballer Erling Haaland's, and linked their size to hunting megaherbivores like elephants as nomadic foragers.
- Chris Stringer at London's Natural History Museum said other Denisovan fossils further north also point to large bodies, but called the Penghu build unusually heavy for the warmer conditions around Taiwan even during a glacial period.
Why it matters: This delivers the first solid body-size estimate for a Denisovan from southeastern Asia, expanding a picture previously built almost entirely on scraps from Siberia and Tibet. It gives researchers tangible evidence that Denisovans were physically imposing across their range, reshaping models of how they competed and potentially interbred with Homo sapiens and other hominins across Pleistocene Asia.
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