Fossil analysis reveals how Denisovans fared on the ‘roof of the world’

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

When I traveled to the plateau three decades ago, my head was pounding and I slowed down due to altitude sickness.

Archaeologists have long believed that 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 inhabited.

But new research suggests that a mysterious species of ancient man was able to thrive on the so-called roof of the world long before Homo sapiens, our own species, arrived on the scene.

Scientists first identified Denisovans in 2010 using DNA sequences extracted from a rare small finger bone fragment found in Siberia.

Now the Baishiya karst cave on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau is helping to answer many questions about who the Denisovans were.

Archaeologists examined the jawbone and rib bone found in the cave, along with thousands of animal bone fragments recovered during excavations in 2018 and 2019.

The analysis sheds light on how extinct humans fared in the Ice Age environment for more than 100,000 years.

With the return of the Chang’e-6 lunar mission on June 25, the Chinese government has something no one else has encountered – rocks and soil from the far side of the moon.

China’s National Space Administration said it will once again share its lunar samples with scientists around the world — following a precedent set by NASA after the Apollo missions.

But a U.S. law known as the Wolf Amendment, which prohibits NASA from using government funds for bilateral cooperation with China or its agencies without authorization from Congress or the FBI, may impede U.S. access to the samples.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN this week that the federal agency is working to ensure that access to lunar soil samples does not violate the law. The results of the analysis of the samples could give scientists insight into the early days of the Moon, Earth and the Solar System.

Take a moment to marvel at what scientists say is the world’s oldest known story. It is painted on the wall of a cave in present-day Indonesia and depicts three people interacting with a pig.

The research team used a new technique to date the calcium carbonate crust that formed during the art to more than 50,000 years.

The discovery is the latest rock art to be found in the region’s fascinating limestone caves and is at least 33,000 years older than known European Paleolithic sites such as Lascaux.

Some experts believe that the paintings may have been a visual supplement to oral stories lost to time.

Rivers often change their course. But a research team studying the Ganges, which snakes from the Himalayas through India and Bangladesh, has found evidence of something much more dramatic in its ancient past.

From clues hidden in the mud and grains of sand, scientists have discovered that a powerful earthquake changed the course of the river 2,500 years ago – the first time this natural phenomenon has been detected.

The team found sand volcanoes – a hallmark of an earthquake-affected riverbed – and a large river channel that filled with mud around the same time.

If a similar earthquake were to happen in the Ganga Delta today, it could affect more than 140 million people in the area.

Entomologist Dr. Gerard Talavera came across 10 painted butterflies on a beach in French Guiana about ten years ago. With torn wings riddled with holes, the insect looked worn.

While the painted lady is a persistent long-distance traveler, with migration patterns that stretch thousands of kilometers, she usually travels overland to stop and rest.

Talavera, a senior researcher at the Botanical Institute in Barcelona, ​​Spain, suspected that the butterflies crossed the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. In a new study, he and an international team put together what it took to make such an epic journey happen.

In other insect reports, researchers recorded ants amputating infected limbs from injured nests.

Dive into these stimulating reads.

— The rotation of the Earth’s core has been slowing down for the past few decades, a recent study has confirmed. What can this mean?

— Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of a giant swamp creature with a skull shaped like a toilet seat that was likely a top predator 40 million years before dinosaurs appeared on Earth.

— The discovery of fossilized grape seeds has revealed why you can thank the death of the dinosaurs for your glass of red wine.

— A Massachusetts woman who lost a limb in a 2018 accident now walks and moves like anyone else with a bionic leg fully connected to her brain.

— A new NASA radar image shows a small moon around an asteroid that narrowly missed Earth.

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