Humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans

Interesting article and thanks for posting. I wonder if anyone will find more fossil evidence of the missing Denisovans. It's freaky that we have their genome but no physical evidence of them other than a finger bone and 2 teeth.
 
I remember watching a few documentaries about this a couple of weeks ago, and it was pretty interesting. Thanks for the post!
 
Thanks Dave for bringing this one on.

Human evolution is certainly an interesting subject and holds out a staggering number of species through human evolution from primate, great ape to humans. One difficulty in most studies remains small sample size and as David Brown put it is rather puzzling we have so few examples of Denisovans in the fossil record.

At an even earlier stage we also have several missing links or small sample sizes to raise individual fossil specimens into a evolutionary family or identify it as its own species.

I will check my book record once I get back home to see if I can find any useful references for us to ponder over. :)
 
Quite possibly the Devonsians were more domestic than Neaderthals and filled differing niches? It could also mean the soils they frequented were not conducive to fossilization? Its amazing when we look at the current world and think what will our ancestors 40 million years from now actually get out of our fossils? And seeing as fossilization is so rare its fascinated me since I was a little kid the "what are we missing" angle. Because naturally we get the fossils we get on the luck of the draw, it would be cool to somehow get the knowledge of the stuff that doesn't fossilize.

These types of questions oddly influenced my career. My love for Paleontology as a kid evolved into a love for Archaeology which evolved into a love of Anthropology which evolved into a love of History and Social Science.
 
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