Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - How Denisovans Created Modern Non-African Humans

Friday, 15 August 2025

Refuting Creationism - How Denisovans Created Modern Non-African Humans

An artist's rendering shows the first-ever portrait of a Denisovan woman, recreated from an ancient DNA sample.

Maayan Harel.

New insights into the Denisovans – the new hominin group that interbred with modern day humans - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

There is increasing evidence that the human evolutionary story is far richer and more complex than was once assumed, back when many expected a neat series of fossils showing a linear descent from a single African ancestor.

It is also becoming increasingly clear that the Bronze Age human-origin myth in the Bible has about as much historical credibility as Enid Blyton’s Noddy’s Adventures in Toyland — and at least Blyton never claimed her stories were literal truth or the basis of moral authority. Unlike creation myths, Noddy’s adventures were always meant for the nursery, not the classroom.

We now understand that hominin populations frequently split into regional varieties which diversified as more or less isolated groups, only to merge again later into a single population. This process appears to have begun even as we were diverging from the common ancestor we share with chimpanzees. For around a million years after that split, interbreeding remained possible, with chimpanzee genes entering the hominin genome and vice versa.

The interbreeding that most shaped modern, non-African Homo sapiens occurred when African H. sapiens encountered Neanderthals—or their immediate ancestors—during successive waves of migration, permitted by changes in climate and geography. These contacts culminated in the last and only successful migration between roughly 60,000 and 40,000 years ago.

The Neanderthals themselves were descended from an earlier migration that had followed H. erectus into Eurasia, later splitting into Neanderthals in western Eurasia and Denisovans in eastern and south-eastern Eurasia. Modern genomics now shows that it was the Denisovans who contributed even more to the ancestry of non-African H. sapiens than the Neanderthals did. The Denisovans—likely to be reclassified as H. longi, the name given to a skull found in China—appear to have diversified into populations adapted to environments as varied as the Tibetan Plateau and the subtropical coasts of Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Austronesia.

The Denisovans. Here’s a concise but detailed summary of what is currently known about the Denisovans—their origins, distribution, and position in the hominin evolutionary tree—based on the latest genetic, fossil, and archaeological evidence.

Origins

First identified (2010): Denisovans were discovered through ancient DNA extracted from a finger bone (phalanx) found in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. The DNA was sequenced by Svante Pääbo’s team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Genetic distinctiveness: Analysis showed that they were a sister group to Neanderthals, both descending from a common ancestor that split from the lineage leading to Homo sapiens roughly 550,000–765,000 years ago.
Separation from Neanderthals: Denisovans and Neanderthals themselves appear to have split around 400,000 years ago.
Possible origin population: Their ancestors likely evolved from an H. heidelbergensis-like group that had left Africa in a migration separate from that of Homo erectus (~1.8 million years ago) and long before the migration of modern humans (~60–70 ka).

Distribution

Evidence for Denisovan presence is mostly genetic, with limited fossil finds. Known or inferred distribution:

Fossil sites

Denisova Cave, Altai Mountains, Siberia: The type site, with remains dated between ~200 ka and 50 ka.
Baishiya Karst Cave, Tibetan Plateau: A Denisovan mandible (the Xiahe jaw) dated to at least 160 ka, suggesting high-altitude adaptation.
Potential Chinese sites: The Harbin skull (Homo longi) and other archaic specimens such as Dali and Xuchang may represent Denisovans or closely related populations, though classification is still debated.

Genetic evidence

Widespread in Asia & Oceania: Denisovan DNA is found in modern human populations, especially among Melanesians, Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, and some Philippine groups (e.g., Ayta Magbukon), where it can make up 4–6% of the genome.
Traces in East and South Asia: Smaller amounts of Denisovan ancestry occur in Han Chinese, Tibetans, Japanese, and other Asian populations.
Adaptations passed on: One of the best-known is the EPAS1 gene variant in Tibetans, inherited from Denisovans, enabling survival at high altitudes.

Position in the Hominin Evolutionary Tree

Shared ancestry with Neanderthals: Denisovans are the eastern branch of the Neanderthal–Denisovan clade.
Relationship to Homo sapiens: Both groups interbred with H. sapiens, but Denisovans did so mainly in Asia and Oceania.
Multiple subgroups: Genetic evidence suggests at least three distinct Denisovan populations, indicating they were not a uniform group but adapted to different regions—from Siberia to the tropics.
Possible connection to Homo longi: Some palaeoanthropologists suggest H. longi may be Denisovan or closely related, potentially expanding the known fossil record.

Summary:
Denisovans were a diverse and adaptable archaic human group, closely related to Neanderthals but distinct, with origins in a mid-Pleistocene migration out of Africa. Their range stretched from Siberia to Southeast Asia and Oceania, and their genetic legacy remains strong in some modern populations. They were not a peripheral side branch—they were a major human lineage whose interbreeding significantly shaped modern human diversity.

How Denisovans helped shape modern humans is the subject of a paper in Nature Genetics by Dr Linda Ongaro of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, and Emilia Huerta-Sánchez, also of Trinity College Dublin and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.

Regrettably, their paper sits behind an expensive paywall, but the research is summarised in a Trinity College news release.

New insights into the Denisovans – the new hominin group that interbred with modern day humans
Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered “hominin” group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history.
In 2010, the first draft of the Neanderthal genome was published, and comparisons with modern human genomes revealed that Neanderthal and modern humans had interbred in the past.

A few months later, analysis of a genome sequenced from a finger bone excavated in the Denisova cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia revealed that this bone fragment was from a newly discovered hominin group that we now call Denisovans, who also interbred with modern humans.

This was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the last decade. It’s a common misconception that humans evolved suddenly and neatly from one common ancestor, but the more we learn the more we realise interbreeding with different hominins occurred and helped to shape the people we are today.

Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only that finger bone, a jawbone, teeth, and skull fragments. But by leveraging the surviving Denisovan segments in Modern Human genomes scientists have uncovered evidence of at least three past events whereby genes from distinct Denisovan populations made their way into the genetic signatures of modern humans.

Dr Linda Ongaro, first author
School of Genetics and Microbiology
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

Each of these [interbreeding events] presents different levels of relatedness to the sequenced Altai Denisovan, indicating a complex relationship between these sister lineages.

In the review article, Dr Ongaro and Prof. Emilia Huerta-Sanchez outline evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range from Siberia to Southeast Asia and Oceania, were adapted to distinct environments.

They further outline a number of genes of Denisovan origin that gave modern day humans advantages in their different environments.

Among these is a genetic locus that confers a tolerance to hypoxia, or low oxygen conditions, which makes a lot of sense as it is seen in Tibetan populations; multiple genes that confer heightened immunity; and one that impacts lipid metabolism, providing heat when stimulated by cold, which confers an advantage to Inuit populations in the Arctic.

There are numerous future directions for research that will help us tell a more complete story of how the Denisovans impacted modern day humans, including more detailed genetic analyses in understudied populations, which could reveal currently hidden traces of Denisovan ancestry. Additionally, integrating more genetic data with archaeological information – if we can find more Denisovan fossils – would certainly fill in a few more gaps.

Dr Linda Ongaro.

Publication:
Ongaro, L., Huerta-Sanchez, E.
A history of multiple Denisovan introgression events in modern humans. Nat Genet 56, 2612–2622 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01960-y

Abstract
The identification of a new hominin group in the Altai mountains called Denisovans was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the last decade. Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only a finger bone, jawbone, teeth and skull fragments. Leveraging the surviving Denisovan segments in modern human genomes has uncovered evidence of at least three introgression events from distinct Denisovan populations into modern humans in the past. Each of them presents different levels of relatedness to the sequenced Altai Denisovan, indicating a complex relationship between these sister lineages. Here we review the evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range, were adapted to distinct environments and introgressed into modern humans multiple times. We further discuss how archaic variants have been affected by demographic history, negative and positive selection and close by proposing possible new lines of future research.

Ongaro, L., Huerta-Sanchez, E.
A history of multiple Denisovan introgression events in modern humans. Nat Genet 56, 2612–2622 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01960-y

© 2025 Springer Nature Ltd.
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Modern genomics has not only revealed the extent of Denisovan diversity and adaptation, but also that their DNA survives in modern human populations. That survival alone tells a story — and it’s one that sits very uncomfortably with biblical creationism.

The discovery of Denisovan DNA in modern human populations is fundamentally at odds with the core claims of creationism. According to a literal reading of the Bible, all humans are descended from a single couple created in one place at one time, with no other human-like species in existence. In that framework, there is no room for a second or third lineage of humans evolving elsewhere, let alone interbreeding and contributing to our genetic makeup.

Yet the evidence is overwhelming. Denisovan DNA is found in measurable proportions in populations from Oceania, Southeast Asia, and parts of East Asia, with clear signatures of adaptation — such as the high-altitude EPAS1 variant in Tibetans — that could only have arisen through interbreeding with a population long adapted to those conditions. This means that, at the time modern humans left Africa, there were already long-established human populations elsewhere, descended from earlier migrations, and the two groups mixed.

For creationists to reconcile this with their doctrine, they would have to accept that anatomically modern humans and Denisovans — an entirely separate population with a deep evolutionary history — coexisted, interbred, and left detectable genetic legacies still present today. But that would require abandoning the idea of a single, pure human lineage and admitting that the human story is one of branching, merging, and adaptation over hundreds of thousands of years—precisely what evolutionary theory predicts and creationism denies.

And so, the Denisovan DNA in our genomes becomes another awkward guest at the creationist dinner table—sitting there in plain sight, cheerfully contradicting the host’s favourite story, and refusing to leave no matter how many times they pretend it isn’t there.

The Denisovan legacy is a reminder that our species is not the product of a tidy, linear process, but of a dynamic, tangled history in which different human lineages met, mingled, and left their mark. Each new fossil, each new genome sequence, peels back another layer of that history, showing how interconnected we truly are—not just with one another, but with cousins long gone. Far from diminishing our story, these discoveries enrich it, revealing that humanity is not a creation fixed in time, but an evolving tapestry still being woven.

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