A Middle Pleistocene Denisovan molar from the Annamite Chain of northern Laos

Fabrice Demeter , Clément Zanolli (1) , Kira E. Westaway , Renaud Joannes-Boyau , Philippe Duringer (2) , Mike W. Morley , Frido Welker , Patrick L. Rüther , Matthew M. Skinner , Hugh Mccoll , Charleen Gaunitz , Lasse Vinner , Tyler E. Dunn , Jesper V. Olsen , Martin Sikora , Jean-Luc Ponche (3) , Eric Suzzoni , Sébastien Frangeul , Quentin Boesch (2) , Pierre-Olivier Antoine (4) , Lei Pan , Song Xing , Jian-Xin Zhao , Richard M. Bailey , Souliphane Boualaphane , Phonephanh Sichanthongtip , Daovee Sihanam , Elise Patole-Edoumba , Françoise Aubaile (5) , Françoise Crozier (6) , Nicolas Bourgon , Alexandra Zachwieja , Thonglith Luangkhoth , Viengkeo Souksavatdy , Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy , Enrico Cappellini , Anne-Marie Bacon (5) , Eske Willerslev , Laura Shackelford , Jean-Jacques Hublin (7, 8, 9)

1 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
2 IPGS - Institut de physique du globe de Strasbourg
3 UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg
4 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
5 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
6 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
7 Collège de France - Chaire internationale Paléoanthropologie
8 Collège de France - Chaire Paléoanthropologie
9 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology [Leipzig]

The Pleistocene presence of the genus Homo in continental Southeast Asia is primarily evidenced by a sparse stone tool record and rare human remains. Here we report a Middle Pleistocene hominin specimen from Laos, with the discovery of a molar from the Tam Ngu Hao 2 (Cobra Cave) limestone cave in the Annamite Mountains. The age of the fossil-bearing breccia ranges between 164-131 kyr, based on the Bayesian modelling of luminescence dating of the sedimentary matrix from which it was recovered, U-series dating of an overlying flowstone, and U-series-ESR dating of associated faunal teeth. Analyses of the internal structure of the molar in tandem with palaeoproteomic analyses of the enamel indicate that the tooth derives from a young, likely female, Homo individual. The close morphological affinities with the Xiahe specimen from China indicate that they belong to the same taxon and that Tam Ngu Hao 2 most likely represents a Denisovan.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Fabrice Demeter, Clément Zanolli, Kira E. Westaway, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Philippe Duringer, et al.. A Middle Pleistocene Denisovan molar from the Annamite Chain of northern Laos. Nature Communications, 2022, 13, ⟨10.1038/s41467-022-29923-z⟩. ⟨insu-03824801⟩