Baishiya Karst Cave
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Location | Xiahe County, Gansu, China |
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Region | Ganjia Basin, Tibetan Plateau |
Coordinates | 35°26′53″N 102°34′17″E / 35.44806°N 102.57139°E |
Altitude | 3,280 m (10,761 ft)[1] |
Type | karst cave |
Length | > 1 km (3,281 ft) |
Width | 20 m (66 ft) |
Height | 10 m (33 ft) |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 2018 |
Archaeologists | Zhang Dongju, Chen Fahu |
Baishiya Karst Cave (Chinese:
Geography[edit]
Baishiya Karst Cave is located in Ganjia (
Religion[edit]
Baishiya Karst Cave is a Tibetan Buddhist sanctuary[3] lying north of Trakkar Gompa ("Baishiya Temple," Báishíyá Sì,
Fossils[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Xiahe_mandible.jpg/220px-Xiahe_mandible.jpg)
In 1980, a Tibetan monk who was meditating in the cave discovered the Xiahe mandible. He passed the fossil to Jigme Tenpe Wangchug , the sixth Gungthang tulku, who donated it to Lanzhou University.[3][4][5] The mandible was so unusual that researchers did not know how to classify it.[4][5] Scientists Chen Fahu and Zhang Dongju began studying the site in 2010, while collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology began in 2016.[6] The first archaeological survey at the site was performed in 2016, while the first systematic excavation did not take place until 2018.[3] Several lithic artefacts and animal bones with cut marks were discovered at the entrance to the cave.[1]
In 2020 Denisovan DNA plus stone artefacts and animal bones were recovered from the Buddhist holy cave on the Tibetan Plateau by scientists from the University of Wollongong, Australia including Professor Bo Li. Denisovan DNA was recovered from four layers in the cave dated between 45.000 and 100,000 years ago. A fragment of jawbone had been found in the cave in 2019. Aboriginal Australians have about 5% of Denisovan DNA.[7]
The Xiahe mandible consists of the right half of a partial mandible with two attached molars. A calcareous crust on the mandible was found to be about 165,000 years old by uranium-thorium dating. Material was drilled out of the teeth and six different collagen proteins were analyzed by mass spectrometry.[1] This showed that the Xiahe specimen belonged to a population that was closely related to the Denisovan specimens from Denisova Cave.[6] This is the first time that an ancient hominin was successfully identified using only protein analysis.[8] It is the most complete known Denisovan fossil.[8] Discover, Science News and Nova all named the discovery in their lists of Top Science Stories of 2019.[9][10][11]
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g Chen et al. 2019.
- ^ a b c d GNRTV 2016.
- ^ a b c d Hublin 2019.
- ^ a b c Wu 2019.
- ^ a b Gibbons 2019.
- ^ a b Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 2019.
- ^ "In a Tibetan cave archaeologists find evidence of a mysterious ancestor". Stuff/Fairfax. 4 November 2020.
- ^ a b Warren 2019.
- ^ Scharping, Nathaniel (31 December 2019). "Denisovan Research Reveals That Early Humans Were More Complex Than We Thought". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
- ^ "Top 10 stories of 2019: A black hole picture, measles outbreaks, climate protests and more". Science News. 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
- ^ "The top 10 science stories of 2019". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
Bibliography[edit]
- Chen, Fahu; Welker, Frido; Shen, Chuan-Chou; Bailey, Shara E.; Bergmann, Inga; Davis, Simon; Xia, Huan; Wang, Hui; Fischer, Roman; Freidline, Sarah E.; Yu, Tsai-Luen; Skinner, Matthew M.; Stelzer, Stefanie; Dong, Guangrong; Fu, Qiaomei; Dong, Guanghui; Wang, Jian; Zhang, Dongju; Hublin, Jean-Jacques (2019-05-01). "A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau" (PDF). Nature. 569 (7756). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 409–412. Bibcode:2019Natur.569..409C. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1139-x. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 31043746. S2CID 141503768.
- Gibbons, Anne (2019-05-01). "First fossil jaw of Denisovans finally puts a face on elusive human relatives". Science; AAAS. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
- "
那 些不能 错过的 甘 南 美景 之 白石 崖 溶洞" (in Chinese). Gannan Radio and Television. 2016-12-20. Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. Retrieved 2019-05-02. - Hublin, Jean-Jacques (2019-05-01). "How We Found an Elusive Hominin in China". SAPIENS. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
- "First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans". Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
- Warren, Matthew (2019-05-01). "Biggest Denisovan fossil yet spills ancient human's secrets". Nature. 569 (7754): 16–17. Bibcode:2019Natur.569...16W. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01395-0. PMID 31043736. S2CID 141503756.
- Wu, Bin (2019-05-02). "这块
骨 头来自 一个神秘人种,证明16万年前古人类已登上青藏高原". Sohu (in Chinese). Retrieved 2019-05-02.