The proteome of the late Middle Pleistocene Harbin individual.

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. Editor's summary: Ancient DNA has revealed a great deal about our history, especially admixture events with archaic hominins. However, DNA degrades much faster than other biomolecules such as proteins. Ancient proteomics may enhance our ability to study remains that are older and in environments inhospitable to DNA. Fu et al. analyzed ancient proteomic data from a 146,000-year-old cranium from Harbin, China. They identified 95 proteins with sufficient peptides and found that the amino acid variants were consistent with this individual being most closely related to Denisovans. Given the paucity of confirmed Denisovan remains, ancient proteomics may allow the increased identification of such individuals, enabling further study of these enigmatic hominins. —Corinne Simonti [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]