The proteome of the late Middle Pleistocene Harbin individual

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fu, Qiaomei; Bai, Fan; Rao, Huiyun; Chen, Shaokun; Ji, Yannan; Liu, Aoran; Bennett, E. Andrew; Liu, Feng; Ji, Qiang
• 署名单位: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology, CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS; Hebei GEO University; China Geological Survey; Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-13953
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adu9677
• 发表日期: 2025-08-14
• 页码: 704-707
• 关键词: calve-perthes-disease; genome sequence; glutamine deamidation; cave; neanderthal; hominin; identification; degradation; EVOLUTION; insights

摘要

Denisovans are a hominin group primarily known through genomes or proteins, but their precise morphological features remain elusive because of the fragmentary nature of the discovered fossils. Here, we report 95 endogenous proteins retrieved from a nearly complete cranium from Harbin, China, dating to at least 146,000 years ago and previously assigned to a new species, Homo longi. This individual has three Denisovan-derived amino acid variants and clusters with Denisova 3, suggesting that the Harbin individual belongs to a Denisovan population. This study fills the gap between morphological and molecular evidence, enhancing our understanding of Denisovans' spatiotemporal dispersal and evolutionary history.