Denisovan remains discovered for first time in Southwest China

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters

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The geographical location of the Bianfu Cave and the morphology of the two human teeth and three newly discovered Denisovan bones.

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Credit: Image by IVPP

Scientists recently discovered various Denisovan remains in Southwest China dating back to the late Middle Pleistocene, including the first Denisovan radius—one of two long bones in the forearm.

Denisovans are a genetically identified archaic hominin group believed to have been widely distributed across Asia. However, due to the limited number of fossil remains, especially postcranial bones—those below the skull—a distribution gap has long existed in Southwest China. Therefore, little is known about the physical traits that allowed Denisovans to adapt to different environments.

In a new study, researchers employed a novel proteomic strategy to identify additional hominin bones from a Paleolithic site called Bianfu Cave in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Paleoproteomic analysis confirmed five hominin remains as Denisovans, helping fill the distribution gap of Denisovans in Southwest China.

According to the researchers, the discovery of the first Denisovan radius provides crucial insights into Denisovan postcranial phenotype.

The study, published in Nature on September 9, was conducted by a research team led by Professor FU Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with multiple institutions.

New Strategy

ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) has recently become an important tool for large-scale screening of hominin fossils due to its advantages of micro-invasive sampling, methodological simplicity, rapid identification, and low cost. However, the recovery rate of hominin fossils has been extremely low—only 0.1% at sites such as Denisova Cave and Baishiya Karst Cave. Given that Bianfu Cave yielded more than 60,000 bone fragments, conducting ZooMS analysis on all specimens would be both costly and inefficient.

To overcome this challenge, the researchers developed a novel “morphological pre-screening + ZooMS identification” strategy. This combined approach significantly improved screening efficiency and provided a replicable methodological framework for discovering hominin remains at similar Paleolithic sites with abundant bone fragments.

Through morphological pre-screening, the researchers selected 22 potential hominin remains from the large assemblage of bone fragments. Subsequent ZooMS analysis confirmed that two parietal bone fragments (BFD767 and BFD769) and one proximal radial fragment (BFD771) were derived from hominins.

Among the three newly identified hominin specimens, BFD767 and BFD771 originated from Layer 7, which also contained four hominin teeth. This layer was dated to approximately 148,000–134,000 years ago. BFD769 came from the older Layer 9, dated to approximately 167,000–150,000 years ago.

In addition to the three hominin bones, the research team also analyzed two hominin teeth excavated from Layer 7, including a lower fourth premolar (YHB3518) and a lower second molar (YHB3075).

To obtain comprehensive proteomic profiles of the five specimens, the team extracted and analyzed proteins from multiple fractions of different tissues, including bone, dentine, and enamel. Six to 16 endogenous proteins were identified from each specimen, covering 1,972 to 4,076 amino acid residues. Notably, abundant specific peptides from the amelogenin Y isoform were identified in the enamel of the two teeth, indicating that both teeth belonged to male individuals.

Population Assignment

To determine the population assignment of these hominin specimens, the research team systematically screened for single amino acid polymorphisms (SAPs) within the endogenous proteomes.

They found that all five samples carried the Denisovan-specific variant COL1A2 R996K, indicating their Denisovan identity. Three additional informative SAPs were identified in the enamel of two Bianfu Cave teeth: the Denisovan-related variant AMBN M273V; AMELY 179L, a variant shared by modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans; and AMBN 253A, a variant that distinguishes the Bianfu Cave individuals from Middle Pleistocene Homo erectus in East Asia.

Using the consensus sequences of endogenous proteins from each sample, the researchers constructed Bayesian phylogenetic trees with topologies highly consistent with those obtained from nuclear genome studies. The trees placed modern humans as the sister group to the Neanderthal-Denisovan clade. Each Bianfu Cave sample formed a monophyletic clade with Denisova 3, with a posterior probability of 100 percent. This result aligns with the SAP assignments, supporting the reliable attribution of these specimens as Denisovans.

Morphological Phenotype

Comprehensive morphological analysis was conducted on the two Denisovan parietal bones (BFD767 and BFD769) and one partial radius (BFD771). The cranial vault thickness pattern of Bianfu Cave hominins is most similar to that of H. heidelbergensis and East Asian late Middle Pleistocene archaic Homo.

Notably, BFD771 is the only confirmed Denisovan radius to date. Although it has large proximal dimensions and a likely medially oriented radial tuberosity, similar to Neanderthal radii, its overall external shape and mid-neck cross-sectional geometry align more closely with modern humans. According to the researchers, the first identified Denisovan radius fragment is of exceptional importance. Its mosaic features indicate unique biomechanical demands and behavioral adaptations in Denisovans, differing from those inferred for Neanderthals and modern humans.

Based on their results, Bianfu Cave has the richest Denisovan fossil record currently known outside Denisova Cave. The study fills a critical geographical gap in the known distribution of Denisovans. The Denisovan remains were derived from two different stratigraphic layers dating to Marine Isotope Stage 6. During this glacial period, the relatively warmer climate and abundant food resources may have enabled the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to serve as a favorable habitat for hominins and supported the long-term survival of the Bianfu Cave population.

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-026-10976-9 

One of humanity’s oldest drug habits

 

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The CPL-2a skeleton in the trench.

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Credit: Fakhri

A team of Griffith University archaeologists has uncovered evidence that humans were using mind-altering substances much earlier in time than previously supposed.

Led by Professor Adam Brumm from Griffith’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), and involving ARCHE colleagues Associate Professors Carney Matheson and Michelle Langley, the team combined biochemical and archaeological evidence to trace the prehistoric roots of one of the world’s most popular addictive stimulants, “betel nut”, an ancient drug used throughout much of the Asia-Pacific region.

The group’s research, conducted in collaboration with Indonesian archaeologists from Makassar’s University of Hasanuddin and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), shows that the use of betel nut as a drug emerged among some Indonesian communities by up to 25,000 years ago, moving beyond the previously suggested Neolithic or Bronze Age (~3500 years ago) start times.

Current theories on the earliest history of drug-taking 

Presently, it is thought the world’s first traditions of psychoactive drug use arose after the Neolithic advent of farming, beginning with the innovation of fermented alcoholic drinks (barley beer) about 13,000 years ago in Israel.

“However, this theory fails to account for the possibility that very ancient drug-taking lies at the roots of our most commonly used psychoactive substances,” Professor Brumm said.

Professor Brumm’s investigation focused on the origins of betel nut usage, a near-universal tradition among hundreds of millions of people between India and the South Pacific (about one in 10 of the modern global population).

Consuming betel nut induces a sense of mild euphoria and heightened alertness, among other effects.

“Although poorly known in western societies, it is the world’s fourth most widely used psychoactive substance, after alcohol, caffeine and nicotine,” Professor Brumm said.

Modern users take the betel drug by mixing a processed seed of the Areca catechu palm (the betel “nut”) with slaked lime – commonly made by grinding burnt shells into a fine powder – and other ingredients to form a “quid”, which is then chewed to get high.

“Slaked lime is an essential ingredient because it causes a chemical reaction that releases the nut’s psychoactive compounds into the bloodstream more rapidly,” Professor Brumm said.

The early history of this drug use practice had remained uncertain, largely because areca seeds were rarely preserved at archaeological sites.

Discovery reveals prehistoric drug use 

In the new study, published in Science Advances, the Griffith team reports the discovery of extremely rare skeletal remains of two early human foragers from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, one dating to 25,000-16,000 years ago, the other to 7600-6300 years ago.

Both hunter-gatherers display a highly unusual dental-wear pattern (deep, rounded tooth grooves), a novel bioarchaeological marker the researchers established was caused by a previously unknown drug-use behaviour: habitual sucking of whole betel nuts.

Previous reports suggested the main neuroactive alkaloid in betel nut (arecoline) was released by chewing the processed nut in a prepared quid with slaked lime, with the latter converting arecoline into a free base form, thereby increasing its bioavailability.

"But our team conducted experiments in which we soaked betel nuts in artificial saliva and tested the resultant broths against a panel of cloned human receptors expressed in frog egg cells, including specialised proteins that act as molecular switches, regulating neural activity,” Professor Brumm said.

“This showed that just sucking on intact betel nuts will release arecoline in sufficient amounts to have a physiological effect, altering brain function.”

In addition, biochemical analyses carried out by Associate Professor Carney Matheson detected the presence of arecoline in the dental tissues of the foragers, providing strong evidence for betel nut ingestion.

Taken together, the findings suggest early foragers in Sulawesi engaged in an ancient and longstanding practice of habitually sucking betel nuts, resulting in dramatic alterations to their teeth.

Bad medicine 

While the psychoactive “high” of sucking betel nuts may have been milder than modern quid chewing, the team suggested the habit was significant enough to cause severe periodontal disease.

Ancient foragers on this island generally had bad teeth, and arecoline is a natural analgesic (“painkiller”), so the team suspected one reason for betel nut-sucking was to alleviate the discomfort of toothache.

“Over time, however, sucking these hard, abrasive seeds wore down the foragers’ teeth so badly that in some cases the inner pulp chamber became completely exposed – this would have been extremely painful, caused difficulty eating, and greatly increased the rate of chronic tooth infection,” Professor Brumm said.

“So while this habit may have been a remedy for toothache, years of prolonged nut-sucking eventually caused much worse dental health problems, creating a cycle of continued habitual use.”

Earliest evidence for drug use 

This finding marks a significant shift in our understanding of human drug history, as the practice of using betel nut can now be traced to the Late Pleistocene period.

“Emerging by up to 25,000 years ago in Sulawesi, thus long preceding the onset of agriculture, betel nut-sucking may be the earliest evidence for drug use anywhere in the world,” Professor Brumm said.

“By identifying the ancient practice underlying betel-nut chewing as we know it, the study implies that some modern drug-taking behaviours are deeply rooted in forager traditions.”

The findings also suggest habitual psychoactive substance use, and its associated health costs, were already present among hunter-gatherers tens of thousands of years before agriculture.

The study ‘Betel nut sucking is the earliest recorded evidence for the habitual use of a neuroactive plant drug’ has been published in Science Advances.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aei1901 

The adoption of a new crop reshaped land use in Bronze Age Europe

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Vilnius University

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Broomcorn millet field in Inner Mongolia, the region where the crop was first domesticated. Photo by Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė.

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Credit: Photo by Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė.

A gradual adoption

A multi-proxy approach combining carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotope analyses from human remains with radiocarbon dating, palaeoproteomic sex determination, archaeological and anthropological records, and previously published genetic data was applied. The researchers were able to establish whether the populations that began consuming millet were local, to reconstruct the life stages at which this crop became available to individuals, and to identify the cultural profiles and biological sex of millet consumers. Each proxy answers a different question: carbon and nitrogen isotopes reflect a person's average diet over years, while oxygen and strontium isotopes reflect the geology and hydrology of the area where their food came from during tissue formation. The researchers discovered that millet became part of the diet of Bronze Age communities in south-eastern Poland around 1590 BCE – more than a century earlier than previously estimated – highlighting that millet was consumed gradually by a handful of individuals before it became a major staple.

Dietary changes both between communities and within individual lifetimes were identified by analysing tissues formed at different life stages, showing that several early millet consumers had grown up on diets dominated by traditional crops such as wheat and barley before incorporating millet later in life. This enabled the team to pinpoint the period at which the new crop entered existing foodways, and thus to gain the first precise insights into this gradual process across Bronze Age communities of Central Europe.

New land-use opportunities

Millet, however, was not eaten by everyone but only by part of the population. “And the different strontium isotope compositions in the skeletal tissues of millet consumers versus non-consumers likely point to the use of distinct geological zones within the same territory, rather than to different places of birth”, explains co-author Prof Snoeck from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). Because millet grows rapidly and tolerates relatively dry conditions and poor soils, its cultivation allowed Bronze Age communities to exploit areas that were less suitable for traditional cereals. “In response to increasing food demand and potential changes in climatic conditions, Bronze Age societies adopted a new resilient staple crop to optimise the use of previously marginal parts of their environment and improve food security”, explains lead author Dr Depaermentier from Vilnius University (Lithuania).

Both consumers and non-consumers moreover shared broadly similar archaeological and genetic backgrounds, and the earliest consumers exhibited strontium isotope signatures compatible with local origins. The data therefore provide little support for a simple population-migration-based explanation. Instead, this study suggests that the cultivation of this new crop was associated with changes in how communities used the landscape, enabling cultivation to expand into a broader range of environmental settings.

Across social boundaries

The findings also highlight that “millet consumption was not restricted to a particular sex, age group or social status”, says co-author Prof Makarowicz from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). Together with the strontium isotope evidence, this demonstrates that access to particular parts of the landscape rather than social identity was the determining factor shaping the adoption of this new crop within the society. “The study is the first to link such division of the landscape to the cultivation of a new summer crop, and to the exploitation of areas that had previously seen little agricultural use”, summarises senior author Prof Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė from Vilnius University (Lithuania), who is also a PI of the ERC-CoG MILWAYS project. Understanding these processes can contribute to current discussions about crop diversification and adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aeh1079 

Method of Research

Ancient melons in East Asia likely arrived from South Asia,

 Melons produce many seeds, making the melon shape a traditional symbol of fertility and prosperity in Chinese culture. But the historical debate about how melons made their way to modern tables is as long and twisted as the vines they grow on.

A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals newly discovered aspects of melons’ ancient history. Based on an analysis of the ancient DNA of seeds from a Song imperial dynasty archaeological site in southeastern China (circa 960-1279), scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have determined those ancient melons in East Asia likely arrived from South Asia, rather than being developed from wild Chinese plants, and that they lacked the sweetness of modern dessert melons.

These melons’ flesh color likely resonated with Song dynasty aesthetic sensibilities, as seen in jade-green celadon ceramics that were locally crafted in melon-shaped forms.

Taken together, the study offers a rare and compelling example of how cultural tastes and crop traits may have influenced each other, the researchers said. The study is also an example of how scientists can use ancient DNA to answer historical questions beyond what macro-botanical evidence or artifacts alone can reveal.

Biologist Susanne Renner, in WashU Arts & Sciences and co-author of the new PNAS study, has studied melons for more than 25 years. “At that time, it was assumed that because the genus Cucumis, to which melons belong, has numerous wild African species, that melons originated in Africa,” she said. 

But Renner was never convinced. In 2010, she published a study based on some 100 Cucumis samples from Africa, Australia and Asia that showed that melon has numerous previously overlooked species-level relatives in Australia and around the Indian Ocean. “Based on biogeographic analysis, we inferred that melons most likely originated in Asia, not Africa,” Renner said. It is now clear that melon domestication has occurred independently once in Northeast Africa and twice in India, but archaeobotanical evidence points to a possible additional domestication event in southeastern China.

Renner worked with colleagues in Germany and the United Kingdom on the analysis that the melons came from South Asia, rather than locally domesticated despite older archaeological evidence in the region, warranting further investigation. There are two paths they might have taken, the researchers said: a northern “Silk Road” along the foothills of the Inner Asian Mountains and the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, or a southern “Tea Horse Road” along the southern slopes of the Himalayas and through the valleys of southwest China. 

“Both corridors are historically plausible, as demonstrated by the movement of other food resources,” Liu said. “Current archaeological evidence points more strongly to a southern route. The earliest melon remains in China have been recovered from Han and pre-Han royal tombs in southern China, predating comparable finds from northern ‘Silk Road’ sites by approximately 800 to 1,000 years. We therefore consider a southern route connecting southern China with Southeast and South Asia to be a candidate for the early introduction of melon into China.”

Their genomic analysis also revealed other intriguing facts about the kinds of melons grown in China in the 10th to 13th centuries. 

“The color-related traits are particularly interesting. They suggest that these ancient melons likely had light-green flesh and yellow peel,” Liu said. “Melons with these characteristics are often consumed as vegetables, as mildly sweet fruit, or for their seeds, rather than as high-sugar dessert melons. In the lower Yangtze region today, culinary traditions of consuming melon as pickles or vegetables still persist.”

Liu and Renner said that even today, there are only a handful of crops for which ancient DNA has been obtained and placed in context with the evolution of specific traits. These include the economically important crops of barley, certain types of wheat, cotton, maize and beans. “The difficulty lies in the generally very few substitutions that can be attributed to selection on specific traits,” Renner said. 

The melon’s flesh color itself may have held cultural and symbolic significance during the Song Dynasty, Liu said. 

“The light-green color resonates with the fine-toned color of Chinese jade and with the glazes of celadon porcelain, both highly valued in East Asian aesthetic traditions,” he said. “During the Song dynasty, green celadon ceramics produced in the lower Yangtze region and beyond were frequently fashioned in melon-shaped forms, with glazes echoing the jade-green tones of melon flesh.” 

Such greenware ceramics was popular across East Asia, including China, Korea and Japan, and many examples were recovered from Gugang, Liu said. It might have been popular across the region due to the melon’s symbolic value of fertility and abundance.

“Taken together, this represents a rare and compelling case of cultural-genetic symbiosis, reflected in the parallel historical selection of melon traits and celadon aesthetics,” Liu said.

Which is why Renner was intrigued when she sat down next to WashU colleague Xinyi Liu, a professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences, at a WashU Living Earth Collaborative event. Liu told her about many archaeological seeds, including those that were recently uncovered in an excavation of a medieval port in southeastern China.

Located in present-day Wenzhou, the Gugang port (Shuomen Gugang) helped connect continental East Asia with the Pacific and Indian Ocean worlds during the Song dynasty. An archaeological excavation of the port in 2024 uncovered sunken shipwrecks with large quantities of porcelain and imported fruits such as grape, olive, lychee, kiwifruit — and melons.

Amid this submerged world, Liu saw opportunity. Ancient genetic research relies on exceptionally favorable preservation conditions, where plant DNA are likely to survive. The waterlogged deposits at Gugang represented one such location.

 

Preehistoric builders hauled 25-ton stones 18km to build Britain’s tallest stone row

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Curtin University

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Devil's Arrows, Yorkshire. Credit - Dr Jim Leary

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Credit: Dr Jim Leary

New research has revealed ancient builders deliberately transported enormous 25-tonne stones across at least 18 kilometres (11 miles) to build Britain’s tallest surviving prehistoric stone row - the iconic Devil’s Arrows.

The Curtin University-led study, in collaboration with the University of York, UK, is the first to identify the geological source of the towering stones, tracing them to the rugged terrain of Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire.

The Devil’s Arrows, located near Boroughbridge in northern England, stand up to seven metres tall and form a rare stone alignment in a lowland setting. Despite their scale and prominence, their origins have remained a mystery until now.

The stones are believed to have been transported and erected during the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, possibly around 2000 BC.

Lead author Dr Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group within Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings challenged long-held assumptions about how and why ancient monuments were built.

“Our research shows these stones weren’t simply taken from the nearest available source - they were deliberately chosen from a challenging landscape 18 kilometres away,” Dr Clarke said.

“Plumpton Rocks, which is closer to the Devil’s Arrows, had previously been identified as the probable source of the stones. Our findings instead point to Brimham Rocks, showing that prehistoric builders transported these enormous stones significantly further than thought.

“Each stone weighs more than 25 tonnes, so moving them would have required incredible planning, coordination and engineering skill.

“This tells us prehistoric people placed real importance on the landscape itself. It wasn’t just about convenience - the location the stones came from likely held meaning for them.”

Co-author Dr Jim Leary from the University of York said the findings reshaped how researchers understood prehistoric monument-building.

“These results show that ancient communities were making deliberate and meaningful choices about where their stones came from,” Dr Leary said.

“It highlights the importance of landscape and shared belief systems, as well as the remarkable effort involved in transporting and raising stones of this size.”

The team used a new low-impact sampling method involving adhesive tape to collect tiny mineral grains from the stones without causing damage. By analysing the age “fingerprints” of these grains, researchers were able to match the stones to their source at Brimham Rocks.

The results also rule out natural processes such as glacial movement, demonstrating that the stones were intentionally transported by people.

Dr Clarke said the research team planned to apply their non-invasive method to other standing stones with unknown origins and conduct targeted excavations at both the monument and its newly identified source site.

“These next steps could help us better understand when the stones were moved and how these extraordinary monuments were constructed,” Dr Clarke said.

Justin Scully, National Trust General Manager for Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal and Brimham Rocks, said the research reveals a direct link between Brimham Rocks and the Devil’s Arrows, connecting two remarkable Yorkshire landscapes.

“We’re incredibly grateful to the researchers for helping us uncover this new chapter in the stones’ story and deepen our understanding of the people who shaped this landscape thousands of years ago,” Mr Scully said.

“The Devil’s Arrows are deeply cherished by local communities, and we’re delighted that this discovery adds a new chapter to their story.”

The study, ‘Deliberate Prehistoric Sourcing of the Devil's Arrows, Britain's Tallest Stone Row’, was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A (https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2026.0504).

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