A mysterious human jaw discovered off the coast of Taiwan doesn't belong to our species or Neanderthals, but to another extinct relative, Denisovans.
In a new study, researchers used a cutting-edge technique that analyzes proteins to determine which species the jawbone belonged to, which had been a mystery since its discovery in the early 2000s off the west coast of Taiwan. Their approach showed that the individual was Denisovan, a "cousin" of Neanderthals and humans that roamed throughout Asia during the Pleistocene epoch, and it opens the door to identification of unknown human fossils.
