Pleistocene sediment DNA reveals hominin and faunal turnovers at Denisova Cave

Denisova Cave in southern Siberia is the type locality of the Denisovans,
an archaic hominin group related to Neanderthals. The dozen hominin
remains recovered from the deposits also include Neanderthals and
the child of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan, suggesting that Denisova Cave
was a contact zone between these archaic hominins. Uncertainties persist,
however, about the order in which they appeared at the site, the timing
and environmental context of hominin occupation, and their association
with archaeological assemblages. Here we report the analysis of
DNA from 728 sediment samples, collected in a grid-like manner from the
Pleistocene layers. Ancient faunal and hominin mitochondrial (mt) DNA was
retrieved from 685 and 175 samples, respectively.