New Discovery Reveals the Secret Lives of Denisovans

新发现揭示丹尼索瓦人的秘密生活

New Scientist Podcasts

2026-09-10

23 分钟
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Episode 397 The first evidence has been discovered that Denisovans lived in south-west China. This ancient species of human spent over 100,000 years in the region and left behind incredible artefacts that tell us how they lived. 64,000 fragments of bone have been discovered from Bianfu Cave in Yunnan province. And the site tells us a lot about the food they ate and the animals they hunted - including rhinoceroses, hyenas and prime-age deers. As we discover an increasingly sophisticated culture in this previously mysterious species, what does it teach us about ourselves, and how exceptional Homo sapiens really are? To discuss the findings, Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet are joined by science writer Michael Marshall. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Image Credits: Homo longi - Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Homo floresiensis - Cicero Moraes, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Neanderthal: Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • It's an extraordinary time for discoveries about human evolution.

  • Golden age.

  • It really is.

  • And over the last few years, we've had discoveries that suggest

  • that at least four other species of human were alive as recently as only 50,000 years ago.

  • Now we've suddenly got a trove of evidence that one of these groups,

  • the Denisovans, lived in southwest China for over 100,000 years.

  • And it's the first evidence of Denisovans in that region and one of the only known sites with artefacts

  • that can tell us how this really close relative of ours actually lived.

  • From New Scientist, this is the world, the universe and us.

  • I'm Dr Penny Sarchet.

  • And I'm Dr Rowan Hooper.

  • And now I was reading about ancient humans before

  • we came on the show and I saw this quote from the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.

  • And this is about Neanderthals, not Denisovans.

  • But he said Neanderthals have been good to think with.