The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 24: Deconstructing the Denisovans
This week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts) Spencer is back, as we go back to our old two-man show format (at least for this episode). We discuss “deconstruct” the Denisovans, one of the newest human species discovered by science.
But before we dug into the paleogenomics, Spencer discussed the human and physical geography of Inner Asia, and in particular the Altai region. In the 1990s Spencer had the opportunity to sample the native peoples of the region, which eventually turned in the Eurasian Heartland paper.
We put the critical role of Inner Asia in a broader historical perspective, from the early Indo-Europeans, down to the Mongols and Turks, and finally the “Great Game” of geopolitical rivalry between Britain and the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
The Altai in many ways has been at the center of Inner Asia. Spencer reflects on the fact that this is where there are Shambhala is often located, a mythical utopian kingdom. While the region is surrounded by cold deserts and forbidding mountains, with the Siberian vastness to the north, the Altai region harbors some relatively sheltered valleys through which nourishing rivers flow.
Denisova cave also happens to be in the Altai. This means that not only has the Altai been of historical and mythic importance, but it has been at the center of the understanding of human evolution, and perhaps at the center of human evolution!
We discuss the multiple Denisovan individuals which have been sequenced from the cave. And, the first human ‘hybrid’, a woman whose father was Denisovan, and whose mother was Neanderthal, ‘Denny.’ Denisova cave was inhabited both by Neanderthals and Denisovans, with the Neanderthals having some evidence of modern human admixture, and the Denisovans Neanderthal admixture (and perhaps late Homo erectus).
But the Denisovans were not just a Siberian species. New work suggests there were three deeply distinct Denisovan populations, at least. The people of New Guinea may have had at least three mixing events with Denisovan people, while the admixture in China is almost certainly from a different Denisovan population than that in Oceania.
Finally, we talk about Homo luzonensis, and what the diversity of human across eastern Eurasia means in relation to what it “means to be human.”
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 24: Deconstructing the Denisovans was originally published in Insitome on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.