Scientists have found a child’s tooth from a prehistoric , extinct type of human cousin called Denisovans.
Scientists believe that the girl lived between 164,000 and 131,000 years ago.
The molar is thought to have belonged to a girl probably aged three-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half years old. The tooth hadn’t yet erupted, or broken through her gum.
It was found in a cave in Laos in Southeast Asia, nearly 4000km from where other Denisovan (pronounced den-eess-e-ven) remains have been found.
Because Laos is humid it’s difficult to get DNA from the tooth. Scientists knew it was from a Denisovan from its enamel coating and because it is short and has lots of wrinkles on its surface.
Very little is known about the Denisovan people. Before the Laos find, evidence of the Denisovan people was from just three teeth and a little piece of bone from a pinky finger found in a cave in Siberia in 2010 and a lower jaw found in Tibet. The teeth have been dated as between 195,000 and 52,000 years old and the jawbone as 160,000
Denisovans are named after the Denisova cave where the first remains were found in Siberia, in Russia.
Source : Kids News/ Internet