Denisovans were first identified in 2010 from DNA extracted from an ancient finger bone found in Denisova Cave, Siberia.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by original peer-reviewed Nature papers (Krause et al. 2010; Reich et al. 2010) and multiple independent secondary sources including Britannica and Wikipedia. Minor nuance that the bone was excavated in 2008 but genetically identified/announced in 2010 does not contradict the claim. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists,wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.988 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable | framework convergence=single on the 2010 Nature papers by Krause et al. and Reich et al. reporting mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequencing of the Denisova Cave finger bone (upstreams: Krause et al. 2010, Nature 464:894-897, Reich et al. 2010, Nature 468:1053-1060, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) — publishers independent, evidence may not be | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- Scientists Find a Trove of Denisovan Fossils and Tools in Southwest ... (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08976 (corroboration)
- https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/the-denisovans/ (corroboration)
- https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09710 (corroboration)
- https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/09/science/china-denisovan-fossil-discovery (corroboration)
- https://leakeyfoundation.org/new-studies-denisova-cave/ (corroboration)