Palaeoproteomic analysis of a second hominin specimen from Baishiya Karst Cave, China

An archaeological bone fragment from Baishiya Karst Cave, China, was identified as stemming from a hominin through ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry). Shotgun palaeoproteomic analyses were thereafter conducted on the specimen to refine the taxonomic identification and perform phylogenetic analyses. The reconstruted proteome shows that the newly described Baishiya Karst Cave individual, Xiahe 2, is most closely related to the high-coverage published genome from a Denisovan individual.