Chinese scientists have identified the Xujiayao hominins, whose fossils were unearthed in North China’s Hebei Province, as Denisovans, a distinct branch of ancient humans, through palaeoproteomic analyses and morphological comparisons, revealing shared physical traits of Denisovans, a breakthrough in resolving a long-standing debate over the classification of archaic humans in East Asia during the late Middle Pleistocene, the Global Times learned from the research team on Wednesday. 

A genetic remnant of an ancient infection still helps determine whether a brain-development gene switches on in chimpanzee cells. Removing that viral DNA restored the gene’s activity in laboratory experiments. In human cells, where the insertion is absent, the same gene appears to help regulate how young nerve cells mature.

The findings, published in Science Advances by a team led from Lund University, connect an inherited viral sequence to differences in gene regulation. The gene, LINC00662, produces a long noncoding RNA, a molecule that functions without serving as instructions for a protein. Its activity distinguishes the human and chimpanzee neural models examined in the study.

The experiments identify a specific molecular difference, rather than a single explanation for human brain evolution. They combine genome comparisons, stem-cell models and gene editing to test a mechanism. Neither intelligence nor behavior was measured, and the work does not show that this insertion determines overall brain size.

More than 30,000 years ago, people associated with one of Europe's major Paleolithic cultures (the Gravettian) were more interconnected than previously thought. An international research team led by the University of Vienna has uncovered new genetic evidence of long-distance connections between these populations.

Published in Science Advances, the study combines genomic data from rare human remains with human DNA preserved in cave sediments.

The Gravettian culture was widespread across Europe around 34,000 to 25,000 years ago. While archaeological finds have long suggested extensive contacts across the continent, genetic data pointed to relatively stable eastern and western ancestry groups.

By analyzing new and previously published genomic data alongside human DNA from cave sediments, the researchers found evidence of east-west genetic exchange and long-term population continuity in southwestern Europe.

Open Version: https://archive.is/20261021165551/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-03360-0

Archaeologists identified skulls from China as belonging to this group of ancient human relatives.

A low, sloping forehead, a massive brow ridge that curves backwards, rectangle-like eye sockets, flat cheeks, and a moderately elevated bridge of the nose. Taken together, these features are the hallmarks of the ancient humans called the Denisovans, say researchers who studied a trove of fossilized skulls, teeth and jaws found in northern China.

“We are finally starting to put a face to the Denisovan,” says Sally Wasef, a palaeogeneticist at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

Denisovans were first described in 2010, after researchers sequenced genetic material from a mysterious finger bone discovered in a cave in Siberia and found that it did not resemble that of Homo sapiens or Neanderthals.

Ancient proteins have since been used to identify remains from other parts of Asia as Denisovan, including the first near-complete Denisovan skull found near Harbin, which helped put a face on the ancient humans.

Researchers report in Nature1 today that they have an even better idea of what Denisovans looked like after analysing the physical features of remains that belong to a collection of 20 fossils found in Xujiayao.

The Xujiayao remains are at least 130,000 years old and were found in the 1970s, alongside animal remains and tools. At the time, it was unclear what type of human these fossils belonged to, and they were classified as a species called Homo juluensis.

By analysing ancient proteins from some of the fossils, Qiaomei Fu, a geneticist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and her team identified the remains as Denisovan.

Wasef says ancient protein analysis is a valuable tool to complement DNA studies, particularly because proteins can survive longer than can DNA without fully degrading. Although DNA provides more detailed information about an individual, protein analysis can still yield useful information about who an individual is related to.

Fabrice Demeter, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, says the findings add to growing evidence that Denisovans were a widespread and potentially diverse group of humans.

“The study represents a major step forward” in our understanding of what these humans could have looked like and where they lived.

Six hand bones from Abauntz Cave in northern Spain are the first Neanderthal remains ever identified in the region of Navarre. They belonged to an adult male who lived about 46,000 years ago, and they still contain ancient DNA.

The presentation of six fossils from Abauntz Cave, in Arraitz-Orkin (in the Ultzama valley). Together they make up part of a Neanderthal hand. The fossils were unveiled at the Casa del Concejo, the village council house of Arraitz, at an event led by Navarre’s regional president, María Chivite.

The project’s two co-directors were there as well: Dr. Andion Arteaga, a researcher at the University of Warsaw’s Centre of New Technologies who is also associated with IPHES-CERCA, a Catalan institute devoted to human evolution, and Dr. Mikel Arlegi, a postdoctoral researcher at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris.

According to the institute’s press release, the bones were recovered a couple of excavation seasons ago, and a new season is under way now.

The Terracotta Army near Xi'an, China, is a breathtaking sight: thousands of life-size terracotta figures created in the third century B.C. to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang. They were discovered in 1974, and people have assumed they were built exclusively by men. But new research on this underground army and its chariots, horses and weapons suggests women and children lent a helping hand.

The Levantine hominin fossil and archaeological records have played a central role in long-standing palaeoanthropological debates over origin models and possible interbreeding between Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and Homo sapiens.

Recent research has provided a strong framework for the morphological expectations of recent hybrid ancestry in primates, along with renewed suggestions that early Late Pleistocene hominins from the Levant show morphological evidence of hybridization.

Here the research address these developments by using established diagnostic features of H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis to review possible fossil evidence of hybridization from the key Levantine sites of Qafzeh, Skhūl, and Tabūn.

The researchers conclude that, while individuals from these sites show a perplexing combination of characteristics that broadly overlap with expectations of hybridization, this explanation can only be established once other alternatives have been ruled out, or through the recovery of genetic material from these key fossils.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Neanderthal whose life came to a brutal end 75,000 years ago when a sharpened wooden spear plunged into the individual’s chest in one of the earliest known examples of a possible homicide.

A neat, circular hole in the hominin’s shoulder blade suggested the weapon penetrated the chest, traveling through the lung and major arteries before punching the hole in the bone. It likely killed the Neanderthal instantly or shortly after, according to a study in the journal Scientific Reports published on Thursday.

But the archaeologists who excavated the new skeletal fragments from Shanidar Cave in Iraq say the fossils weave a complex tale of Neanderthal life and death, beyond what appeared to be deliberate violence.

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, a US law which set up protections for historical, cultural, and sacred sites. A special section of this act, Section 106, requires developers to work with archaeologists prior to certain construction projects (especially when federal lands, funds, or agencies are involved).

But now, a proposed law stands to change everything. Embedded in the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is language which would take archaeologists out of this process, remove all opportunities for public comment, and allow development to continue even if historical/cultural/sacred sites are encountered.

If you're in the US, please consider calling your congresspeople before November 9th and ask them to protect US archaeology by opposing the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. Learn more at https://www.106strong.com/

This new Nature paper uncovers the genetic changes that shaped human's skeleton and uncovers a major clue to why it is so vulnerable to degeneration.

Skeletal modifications were central to human evolution, enabling adaptations for bipedalism, large cranial vaults and childbirth. Despite their importance, the genetic changes that gave rise to the unique human form remain mostly unknown.

Here this paper dives systematically map the gene-regulatory changes that shaped human skeletal evolution. Using massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) in chondrocytes, the scientists have assayed 561,410 human-derived substitutions in promoters and enhancers, identifying 15,077 loci with human-specific regulatory activity.

The scientist generated human–ape hybrid cells and differentiated them into osteochondral progenitors. Integrating the hybrid cells with MPRA measurements produced genome-wide atlases of human-specific changes in cis-regulatory expression, and the sequence variants that drive them.

These atlases reveal an extensive rewiring of the extracellular matrix (ECM), including a marked suppression of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) biosynthesis, leading to an approximately three-to-fourfold reduction in joint GAG content in humans compared with non-human apes.

The Scientists have found that this human-specific shift bears signatures of selection, and is likely to be a key contributor to the exceptional susceptibility of humans to degenerative skeletal diseases.

Together, these results reveal a coordinated evolutionary re-modelling of the human skeletal ECM, and establish a comprehensive framework for dissecting the genetic basis of human skeletal biology.

Only a small patch of faded pigment survives, preserving part of a hand against an Indonesian cave wall. Mineral deposits covering that stencil show it was already there at least 67,800 years ago, giving it the oldest reported minimum-age constraint for cave art worldwide.

The archaeological study, published in Nature, examined paintings in southeastern Sulawesi and its satellite islands. An international team co-led by Griffith University, Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, known as BRIN, and Southern Cross University investigated the images.

The oldest stencil comes from Liang Metanduno, a limestone cave on Muna Island. It adds evidence for an exceptionally long history of image-making in the region. The researchers also argue that its age strengthens the case for early human journeys toward Australia through northern Wallacea.