New progress has been made in the study of prehistoric human activities in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

on-site sampling of DNA samples from soil sediments. The study team provided
The words Neanderthals, though tongue-in-cheek, were early written into the biology textbooks of middle school students because of their "European ancestors". In fact, however, they also have a "sister group", which has been unknown despite its genetic contribution to the native populations of modern Oceania, East Asia, South Asia and the Americas.
the Denisovans are a newly discovered ancient human type, human bone fossils are found less, but the genetic characteristics of the study is in-depth, is the paleoanthrenic community is widely concerned about the research hot spot. On October 30, Science published online a study by a Chinese research team that successfully obtained the first Denisovan mitochondrial gene sequence outside the Denisovan cave, revealing that the Denisovans had successfully adapted to a cold, oxygen-deprived environment and had lived in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for a long time in the late 1980s.In 2019, a team led by Lanzhou University and the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute reported the results of a study on the jaw bone fossils of Xiahe people found in the Baishi Cliff Cave in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, using paleoprotein analysis to identify them as Denisovans and to determine their age at least 160,000 years ago using uranium verses, the results were published in the journal Nature.
Reveals that the jaw bone fossils of the Xiahe people are the first Denisovan fossils found outside the Denisovan cave, the site of the White Rock Cliff Cave is the earliest archaeological site on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the spatial distribution of the Denisovans from Siberia to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for the first time, is the Denisovan study and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau prehistoric human activities of the study of the two major breakthroughs.
But because the Xiahe fossil was identified as an amino acid in the paleontology, and the fossil lacked information on buried formations and co-existence archaeological remains, the fossil, although it greatly promoted prehistoric human activities in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the study of the Denisovans, the information revealed by the Denisovans distributed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is very limited, such as our knowledge of its spatial distribution, genetic characteristics and cultural connotations.
In order to fully understand the xiahe people's jawbone on behalf of the population living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, since 2010, led by the current
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute director,
academician ChenFaHu led the Lanzhou University environmental archaeology team once again deep into the plateau, launched a further investigation.In 2018, Zhang Dongju, a professor at Lanzhou University, a visiting guest researcher at the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute and the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Geosciences in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, led the team to carry out the first archaeological excavation of the Baishi Cliff Cave site and invited a number of research teams at home and abroad to conduct comprehensive multidisciplinary research.
They found that the site of the White Rock Cliff Cave is rich in the remains of ancient human activities of the Middle and Late 1980s, including continuous layers of Paleolithic culture and rich archaeological remains of Paleo-Stone, a large number of stone products and bone remains.
Zhang Dongju introduced, these stone products to make technology to simple stone core tablet technology, there are more scrapers and other tools. Bone remains are mostly broken, there are artificial chopping and burning traces, preliminary analysis shows that the upper cultural layer to antelopes, foxes, slugs and other small and medium-sized animals, the lower cultural layer to rhinoceros, bison, hyenas and other large and medium-sized animals.
researchers carried out isotope and photoresotin year-on-year analysis of cave sediments, and finally determined that the reliable age of the site is about 19 to 30,000 years ago.
Among these sediments, fu Qiaomei, a researcher at the
Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and others used a new paleontology technique, sediment DNA, to try to find possible traces of ancient humans.
experiment, we tried to capture mitochondrial DNA from 242 mammals and humans, " he said. Fu said the analysis showed that the ancient DNA of the animals in the sediments, including extinct animals such as rhinos and hyenas, was consistent with the animal bones found at the site. They also succeeded in obtaining mitochondrial DNA from ancient humans, which further analysis revealed to be Denisovan DNA.
Combined with stratosque results, they found that the Dna of the Denisovans appeared mainly about 100,000 years ago and 60,000 years ago, possibly as late as 45,000 years ago, suggesting that the Denisovans lived in the cave for a long time in the late 1980s.interestingly, the researchers also found that 60,000-year-old Denisovan DNA at the site of the White Rock Cave has the closest genetic link to the late Denisovans from the Denisovan cave in Russia's Altai Mountains.
" living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and close ties to Russia's 'relatives' suggest that the Denisovans may have adapted to the high cold and oxygen-deprived environment at that time, and further confirm that the Denisovans were widely distributed on the eastern side of Eurasia. Fu Qiaomei said.
the latest research results of the White Rock Cave provide reliable stratology, archaeology, dates and molecular evidence for the Danisois activities at the White Rock Cliff Cave site, provide an important scientific basis for further understanding the time and space distribution, genetic characteristics, cultural characteristics and environmental adaptation of the Denisovans, and are of great significance for reconstructing the history of ancient human activities in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and clarifying the evolutionary history of east Asia.
The study, which utilizes the most advanced ancient DNA analysis and photoresponsion technology in the world and invites a number of domestic and foreign research teams to work closely together, is the first successful case of extracting ancient human DNA from sediments at archaeological sites in China, is a major achievement of the second comprehensive scientific expedition of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and is also a phased result of the study of prehistoric human activities in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. (Source: Ding Jia, China Science Journal)
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