Article Synopsis
- The fossil record in Island Southeast Asia shows that two ancient species, Homo luzonensis and H. floresiensis, coexisted with anatomically modern humans over 50,000 years ago.
- Genetic studies reveal that modern human populations in this region have genetic traces from Denisovans, a different hominin group with no fossil evidence found in ISEA.
- Despite finding Denisovan ancestry, our research did not uncover significant genetic signals linking modern humans to the super-archaic species, prompting further investigation into the hominin history and origins of Denisovans.
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Article Abstract
The hominin fossil record of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) indicates that at least two endemic 'super-archaic' species-Homo luzonensis and H. floresiensis-were present around the time anatomically modern humans arrived in the region >50,000 years ago. Intriguingly, contemporary human populations across ISEA carry distinct genomic traces of ancient interbreeding events with Denisovans-a separate hominin lineage that currently lacks a fossil record in ISEA. To query this apparent disparity between fossil and genetic evidence, we performed a comprehensive search for super-archaic introgression in >400 modern human genomes, including >200 from ISEA. Our results corroborate widespread Denisovan ancestry in ISEA populations, but fail to detect any substantial super-archaic admixture signals compatible with the endemic fossil record of ISEA. We discuss the implications of our findings for the understanding of hominin history in ISEA, including future research directions that might help to unlock more details about the prehistory of the enigmatic Denisovans.
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