the Secret World of Denisovans: Epic Story Ancient Cousins to Sapiens and Neanderthals

For everyone interested in prehistory—an unprecedented, meticulously reported account of our prehistoric ancestors, the recently discovered “Third Man” cousins to Sapiens and Neanderthals In December 2010, scientists discovered a fragment of a finger bone in the remote, isolated Denisova Cave in Siberia. To their surprise, the bone contained neither Homo sapiens nor Neanderthal DNA. Rather, the fast-advancing science of paleogenetics revealed that the DNA came from a previously unknown species of hominids—the Denisovans (as they almost immediately came to be called)—who shared a common ancestor with both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. This first and subsequent Denisovan fossil discoveries required paleoanthropologists, including world-leading researcher and author Silvana Condemi, to reconsider their understanding of our ancestors and their successive prehistoric migrations out of Africa and into and throughout Eurasia tens of thousands of years ago. Leading us through the excavation of Denisova Cave, the sequencing of the Denisovan genome, and recent fossil research, Condemi and her coauthor, science journalist François Savatier, explore how the Denisovans migrated throughout Asia and with whom they interacted along the way, as well as the comparisons and divergences between the evolutionary processes of Denisovans and our other ancestor cousins, Neanderthals. They help us to understand and appreciate how today’s inhabitants of East Asia—from Siberia to the Philippines—carry up to 5 percent of Denisovan DNA, and they revise the epic story of our ancient human ancestors’ immense journeys as they peopled our planet.

Come face-to-face with Denisovans, the newly identified “third man” on Homo sapiens’ family tree—and how their miraculous discovery is rewriting the human story In 2010, archaeologists working in Denisova Cave, Siberia, unearthed a tiny fragment of finger bone—and brought a lost human species to light. Thanks to the modern miracle of DNA analysis, “Denisovans” quickly took their place—alongside Neanderthals—as our closest cousins. Since then, emerging research has rocked the field of paleoanthropology, from the timeline of human migration across the globe to our own genetic makeup. As researcher Condemi and journalist Savatier explain, Denisovans emerged 400,000 years ago, and went on to cover a “vast empire” across modern Asia and Southeast Asia, well before Homo sapiens arrived. Our ancient forebears then cross-bred with Denisovans in the East (as with Neanderthals in the West), and today, East Asians carry between 1 and 5 percent Denisovan DNA. Working from the slimmest fossil record, scientists have used astounding new techniques to reconstruct the family structures, diet, technology, and even personal appearance of Denisovans and other prehistoric hominids—making The Secret World of Denisovans a 400,000-year account of human ingenuity.