A leading scientist has called for closer scrutiny of ancient migration routes, suggesting an extinct human species called Denisovans first discovered Australia.
DNA from the Siberian cave-dwellers has been found in the Aboriginal descendants of the first settlers on the continent.
Although this genetic trace is not a new discovery, one expert believes it shows their presence predates other humans in the area.
He is calling on future scientific work on the Denisovans and their only known home to focus on unravelling this mystery.
Professor Richard Roberts has called for closer scrutiny of ancient migration routes. DNA from Siberian cave-dwellers the Denisovans has been found in the Aboriginal descendants of the first settlers on Australia, which he believes shows Denisovans first discovered the continent
The questions now are where and when the ancestors of current humans, who were on their way to colonise New Guinea and Australia around 50,000 years ago, met and interacted with the Denisovans. Pictured is a graphic of what we believe we know so far
Professor Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts, director of the centre for archaeological science at the University of Wollongong, has been working for several years studying the only known home of the Denisovans.
The archaic species lived in Altai Mountains of southern Russia, yet their DNA shows up in populations across southeast Asia.
These traces are far higher in Aboriginal people, as well as the Melanesians of Papua New Guinea, than any other modern-day populations worldwide.
Professor Roberts suggests this indicates a mass movement of Denisovans along this route and into the rest of Australia.
He told Gazeta.ru in Russia: ‘To me personally the most interesting question is how four per cent of Denisovan’ DNA got into the Aboriginal people?
‘Look where Australia is, and where Altai is! How is it possible?’
It was essential to ‘get to the bottom of what happened regarding human evolution in Altai’, he said adding that urged ‘meticulous dating of all finds’.
The cave is the only place they have so far been discovered and is some 5,200 miles (8,368 km) from Australia, or 4,958 Miles (7,979 km), which is thought to have been first populated around 65,000 years ago.
By comparison the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest railway line in the world, is 5,772 miles (9,289 kilometres) long.
Yet Professor Roberts believes it is looking increasingly likely that these ancient species of humanoids somehow made this epic journey deep in pre-history.
Professor Roberts, who is closely involved in dating finds in the Denisovan cave and other ancient Siberian sites, said it could not be ruled out that Denisovans were the first to Australia.
But it is not clear by how many hundreds or even thousands of years this may have been.
‘We know that Aboriginal people in Australia contain both Neanderthal DNA, as do you and I, we have Neanderthal DNA, but neither you nor I have Denisovan DNA, which is another group of people actually the home base, as it were, up in Siberia, Denisova Cave in southern Siberia in Russia,’ he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this year.
‘But it’s miraculously in Aboriginal people at the present day in much greater quantities than any other people around the world.
‘How did it get into Aboriginal people?
‘That’s still very much a moot point and we’re not sure.
Dr Roberts, who is closely involved in dating finds in the Denisovan cave and other ancient Siberian sites, said it could not be ruled out that Denisovans were the first to Australia
Professor Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts (left) and Dr Maxim Kozlikin (right) in the Denisova cave
‘Did Denisovan people themselves make it across Wallace’s Line, a big biogeographic boundary separating Asia from Australasia? We don’t know.
‘These are very much still questions that we want to get a handle on, so who were the first people into Australia?
‘We still think it’s modern humans but perhaps it might have been Denisovans. It’s a question mark still hanging there.’
Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, is less convinced of the length of their journey, and whether they were the first to arrive on Australia.
Speaking to MailOnline, he said: ‘We have to bear in mind that the Denisovan people in Denisova Cave were probably at the northern end of a distribution that stretched down through south east Asia.
‘So we don’t have to envisage ‘Denisovans’ migrating from Siberia towards Australia.
‘it’s true that many modern native Australasians have about a four per cent input of ‘Denisovan-like’ DNA in their genomes.
‘But geneticists point out that their Denisovan-like DNA must actually be from a genetically distinct population to the one known from Siberia, one that had perhaps differentiated from the Siberian Denisovans 200,000 years earlier.
Ancient migration routes may have to be reexamined after, evidence that Australia may have been discovered by an extinct human species called the Denisovans. Professor Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts at the University of Wollongong, has been studying their only known home
Aboriginal people in Australia contain both Neanderthal DNA, as do most Westerners, but not Denisovan DNA. This genetic trace is present in Aboriginal people at the present day in much greater quantities than any other people around the world
‘Where the interbreeding event(s) between Denisovans and early modern humans actually took place are currently unknown.
‘I have argued that some members of the wider Denisovan population could have migrated to islands beyond the Wallace Line, where the main interbreeding event(s) with the ancestors of Australasians took place.
‘There is also now evidence from fossil teeth that modern humans were in southern China at least 80,000 years ago, and in Sumatra about 65,000 years ago.
‘So populations like those are much more likely than Denisovans to have been the first colonisers of Australia, an event now dated to at least 65,000 years ago.’
Whoever made it would have had to navigate treacherous crossings from Asia to Australasia, even though the sea distances were closer then because ocean levels were some 360 ft (110 m) lower due to the Ice Age.
And separate studies suggest that the ability of Tibetans to withstand the effects of hypoxia in low-oxygen environments is linked to a gene absent in Neanderthals but present in Denisovans.
A Science opinion article published in 2013 also suggested Denisovans could have reached Australia.
‘In mainland Asia, neither ancient human specimens, nor geographically isolated modern Indigenous populations have Denisovan DNA of any note, indicating that there has never been a genetic signal of Denisovan interbreeding in the area,’ said co-author Professor Alan Cooper, director of the University of Adelaide’s Australian centre for ancient DNA.
‘The only place where such a genetic signal exists appears to be in areas east of Wallace’s Line and that is where we think interbreeding took place, even though it means that the Denisovans must have somehow made that marine crossing.’
The Denisovans were first identified in 2008 as being a distinct human branch to Neanderthals and Home sapiens, although there was crossbreeding between all three.
An enchanting stone bracelet (pictured) made by a Paleolithic man found in the cave could could revolutionise our understanding of early human development, suggesting that technology used in its creation was available much earlier than thought
The manufacturing technology used in the bracelet is seen as being more typical of a later period, for example the Neolithic era, which began around 12,000 years ago. This image shows a hole that was drilled in the bracelet with a high-rotation drill
Extraordinary examples of modern-looking jewellery made by the Denisovans at least 50,000 years ago, but suspected by scientists to be older, show their technological skills as being far advanced of Home sapiens or Neanderthals at the time
Tiny fragments of their remains, including a pinky finger, were found in the world famous Denisova cave.
Extraordinary examples of modern-looking jewellery made by the Denisovans at least 50,000 years ago, but suspected by scientists to be older, show their technological skills as being far advanced of Home sapiens or Neanderthals at the time.
A stunning green-hued chlorite bracelet, a marble ring, and beads from an ostrich eggshell necklace have all been uncovered.
This leads to the question of whether their technological superiority helped them become the first to Australia
The needle was one of humankind’s first tools. It is distinctive of the Upper Paleolithic period, which began 40,000 years ago. The three inch (7.6cm) needle (pictured) is crafted from ancient bird bone
The needles were used for fashioning fishing nets and carrying bags, and sewing together hides for warmth. It is believed to be around 50,000 years old, but the new dating claims could push this back
It also raises the question of where and when the ancestors of current humans, who were on their way to colonise New Guinea and Australia around 50,000 years ago, met and interacted with the Denisovans. A selection of tools found
Scientists from Russia, the UK and Australia are currently examining whether items made by Denisovans in the Altai cave are even older than first understood.
Among these are the world’s oldest needle, and the bracelet which has a hole made by a drilling and rasping, previously thought to be a technological advance some 12,000 years ago in the Neolithic era, and not earlier.
‘The bracelet is stunning – in bright sunlight it reflects the sun rays, at night by the fire it casts a deep shade of green,’ said Professor Anatoly Derevyanko, former director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, in Novosibirsk.
‘It is unlikely it was used as an everyday jewellery piece. I believe this beautiful and very fragile bracelet was worn only for some exceptional moments,’ he said.
His successor Professor Mikhail Shunkov has suggested that the long-extinct Denisovans were significantly more advanced than Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
This leads to the question of whether their technological superiority helped them become the first to Australia.
The Denisova Cave (pictured), in Siberia, is named after Denis, a Russian hermit who lived there in the 18th century. It is the only location where the remains of Denisovans have been discovered and has been repeatedly used by them, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens
The findings came from an annual summer excavation of Denisova Cave, which has been studied for more than three decades. Scientists hope that ongoing excavations at the site (pictured) will hopefully lead to new discoveries
Genetic data suggests that male Denisovans interbred with modern human females. A marble ring found in the cave
Some studies suggest that the ability of Tibetans to withstand the effects of hypoxia in low-oxygen environments is linked to a gene absent in Neaderthals but present in Denisovans. A collection of jewellery
WHO WERE THE DENISOVANS?
The Denisovans are an extinct species of human that appear to have lived in Siberia and even down as far as southeast Asia.
Although remains of these mysterious early humans have only been discovered at one site, the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, DNA analysis has shown they were widespread.
DNA from these early humans has been found in the genomes of modern humans over a wide area of Asia, suggesting they once covered a vast range.
DNA analysis of a fragment of pinky finger bone in 2010, (pictured) which belonged to a young girl, revealed the Denisovans were a species related to, but different from, Neanderthals.
They are thought to have been a sister species of the Neanderthals, who lived in western Asia and Europe at around the same time.
The two species appear to have separated from a common ancestor around 200,000 years ago, while they split from the modern human Homo sapien lineage around 600,000 years ago.
Bone and ivory beads found in the Denisova Cave were discovered in the same sediment layers as the Denisovan fossils, leading to suggestions they had sophisticated tools and jewellery.
DNA analysis of a fragment of a fifth digit finger bone in 2010, which belonged to a young girl, revealed they were a species related to, but different from, Neanderthals.
The teeth and a fragment of pinky finger bone were found at the Denisova cave in Altai Krai, in the Altai Mountains near Barnaul, Russia (pictured)
Later genetic studies suggested that the ancient human species split away from the Neanderthals sometime between 470,000 and 190,000 years ago.
Anthropologists have since puzzled over whether the cave had been a temporary shelter for a group of these Denisovans or it had formed a more permanent settlement.
DNA from molar teeth belonging to two other individuals, one adult male and one young female, showed they died in the cave at least 65,000 years earlier.
Other tests have suggested the tooth of the young female could be as old as 170,000 years.
A third molar is thought to have belonged to an adult male who died around 7,500 years before the girl whose pinky was discovered