What do Denisovans look like? Looking into the Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin fossil record from Asia

Abstract

For many decades, the name H. erectus has been used as a blanket term to refer to almost any hominin found in Asia during the Pleistocene until the appearance of Homo sapiens. However, recent fossil studies have helped to refine the morphological definition of classic H. erectus (Xing et al., 2017). In this context, hominin fossils like those from Zhoukoudian, Hexian and Yiyuan can be assigned to H. erectus s.s., whereas the taxonomy of fossil samples from Xujiayao, Xuchang, Maba or Panxian Dadong remain uncertain (e.g., Xing et al., 2015, Liu et al., 2013). These samples become particularly relevant in the light of the Denisovan’s discovery (Krause et al., 2010). It is not clear yet whether Denisovans deserve specific distinction or may be represented by some Middle to Late Pleistocene human samples we already know from the Asian fossil record. Here we present an overview of the Chinese record for this period in search of possible candidates to represent the physically “elusive” Denisovans.