The discovery of the first fossil of the Denisovans, a sister population to the Neanderthals, in 2010 revealed an otherwise completely unknown hominin population and highlighted a major challenge in studying our ancestors – finding their physical remains in the archaeological record. Bone is easily broken down into small fragments over time and the vast majority of bone found during excavations can’t be identified to species.

In this presentation, Samantha Brown, archaeological scientist and Junior Group Leader for Palaeoproteomics at the University of Tübingen, discusses the use of a technique called ZooMS in the search for new human remains amongst these vast assemblages of bone fragments, and the discovery of Denisova 11 (nicknamed “Denny”), the only known hybrid of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.

Moderator: Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist and educator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. 

This Zoom webinar aired April 25, 2024.

Learn more about the HOT Topic series and get info about upcoming webinars on the museum's Events for Adults page: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/events/...

Visit the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program website: https://humanorigins.si.edu/