What Are Denisovans? The Human "Spin-Off" Explained

Did you know that homo sapiens were not the only type of ancient "human" to exist? During most of the past 2 million years or so, there were several species of hominids on Earth at any given time. You probably know the Neanderthals, but since 2010 we’ve been uncovering evidence of another mysterious cousin that we lived alongside, the Denisovans! Join Hank Green and learn more! SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-origin-of-our-species.html http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-Neanderthalensis https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-Neanderthals.html https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00672-2 http://discovermagazine.com/2016/dec/meet-the-Denisovans https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-fossil-Denisovan-skull-cave-siberia https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/first-fossil-jaw-Denisovans-finally-puts-face-elusive-human-relatives http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/04/11/Denisovan-indonesia-humans-new-species/#.XOdjs4hKg2w https://leakeyfoundation.org/new-studies-denisova-cave/ https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/07/tibetans-inherited-high-altitude-gene-ancient-human https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/science/inuit-greenland-Denisovans.html https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31267-2 https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc6130845 Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_sapiens_neanderthalensis.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhodesian_Men.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neanderthaler,_Oase,_Rum%C3%A4nien_(Daniela_Hitzemann).jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neandertaler_reconst.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dermoplastie_de_la_Femme_de_Flor%C3%A8s_par_Elisabeth_Dayn%C3%A8s,_2007.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denisova_Phalanx_distalis.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asia_laea_relief_location_map.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denisova_4_Denisovan_molar_2.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xiahe_mandible.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%89%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denisova_Cave_lithic_and_osseous_artifacts.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sapiens_neanderthal_comparison_en_blackbackground.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southeast_Asia_(orthographic_projection).svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spreading_homo_sapiens_la.svg https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/178546.php?from=403370 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/traffic-in-the-lhasa-old-town-with-potala-palace-gm1135675966-302202596 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/colorful-inuit-houses-at-the-fjord-nuuk-gm628608846-111651479 https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/human-evolution-stages-from-australopithecus-to-homo-sapiens-sapiens-flat-vector-gm1018211152-273738482 https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/primitive-people-in-stone-age-cartoon-icons-primitive-man-cartoon-vector-in-animal-gm1090046268-292422260