For decades, the Harbin skull—dubbed “Dragon Man”—remained shrouded in mystery, its massive features unlike anything seen before and unmatched by any known human ancestor. Now, cutting-edge genetic ...

Denisovans, a mysterious human relative, left behind far more than a handful of fossils—they left genetic fingerprints in modern humans across the globe. Multiple interbreeding events with distinct ...

Ancient humans crossing the Bering Strait into the Americas carried more than tools and determination—they also carried a genetic legacy from Denisovans, an extinct human relative. A new study reveals ...

In 2010, DNA from a prehistoric finger bone found in Siberia’s Denisova cave revealed the existence of a new archaic human that shared a common ancestor with both Neanderthals and modern humans.

Two studies published on Wednesday in the journals Science and Cell presented molecular evidence confirming that the 146,000-year-old Harbin skull, discovered near Harbin in northeast China, ...

Human evolution’s biggest mystery, which emerged 15 years ago from a 60,000-year-old pinkie finger bone, finally started to unravel in 2025. Analysis of DNA extracted from the fossil electrified the ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. An enigmatic skull ...

Ten years ago, fishermen in Taiwan dredged a jawbone from the seafloor. Now, scientists say it belonged to a Denisovan man. Reading time 3 minutes The Denisovans were a mysterious group of archaic ...

Meet the new face, and braincase to boot, of Asia’s mysterious Stone Age denizens, the Denisovans. The nearly complete, roughly 146,000-year-old skull of an adult male was found nearly a century ago, ...

A simplified model of human evolution showing how humans are related to Neanderthals and Denisovans. Arrows between different branches show mating that occurred. Events that happened further back in ...

In 2010, DNA from a prehistoric finger bone found in Siberia’s Denisova cave revealed the existence of a new archaic human that shared a common ancestor with both Neanderthals and modern humans.