Rare fossil discovery sheds light on lives of mysterious human species после анального секса

The grasslands, glaciers and snow-tipped peaks of the Tibetan Plateau are breathtaking, but the vast expanse in Central Asia is also one of Earth’s harshest environments.

When I traveled to the plateau three decades ago, my head pounded, and I got sluggish from altitude sickness.

Archaeologists long believed the Tibetan Plateau — more than 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters) above sea level — was one of the last places on the planet to be settled.

But new research suggests a mysterious species of ancient human was able to thrive on the so-called roof of the world well before Homo sapiens, our own species, arrived on the scene. Researchers first identified Denisovans in 2010 using DNA sequences extracted from a rare tiny fragment of finger bone found in Siberia.

Now, Baishiya Karst Cave, on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, is helping answer many questions about who the Denisovans were.

Archaeologists have examined a jaw and rib bone found at the cave site, along with thousands of animal bone fragments retrieved during excavations in 2018 and 2019.

The analysis is shedding light on how the extinct humans thrived in the ice age environment for more than 100,000 years.