Here is an interesting article concerning the possibility that evidence for Denisovans (extinct cousins of us and Neanderthals, who ranged across Asia 30,000 to 100,000 years ago) might already be plentiful in the islands of southeastern Asia, but we haven't looked for it.
Given that roughly 3 to 5% of the DNA found in modern Aboriginal Aussies and Melanesians along with approximately 7% to 8% of the DNA in Papuans is thought to have derived from the Denisovans there is obviously a good reason that at one time the Denisovans had lived in this area in spite of the lack of fossil evidence. And it would not surprise me in the least if in the past some fossils that once they were identified as coming from a Homo were automatically assumed to have been from Homo sapiens if they came from a certain time period. A reanalysis of these remains might uncover a number that actually were Denisovan.
Given that roughly 3 to 5% of the DNA found in modern Aboriginal Aussies and Melanesians along with approximately 7% to 8% of the DNA in Papuans is thought to have derived from the Denisovans there is obviously a good reason that at one time the Denisovans had lived in this area in spite of the lack of fossil evidence. And it would not surprise me in the least if in the past some fossils that once they were identified as coming from a Homo were automatically assumed to have been from Homo sapiens if they came from a certain time period. A reanalysis of these remains might uncover a number that actually were Denisovan.
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