In March 2010 a team led by Svante Paabo at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig announced that DNA taken from a finger bone found in Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains of Siberia belonged to a previously unknown group of ancient humans, now known as the Denisovans. The species was identified purely by genetics, without a skeleton. Modern people in Melanesia, Australia and parts of Asia carry up to 5 per cent Denisovan DNA. In 2019 a jaw found in a cave in Tibet showed that they lived at high altitude, and Paabo received the 2022 Nobel Prize for his work on ancient genomes.
Before and after
- 2010European sovereign-debt crisis
- 20102010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull
- 2010Crisis in Venezuela
- 2010Release of Viber
- 2010The Denisovans are identified
- 2010The Neanderthal genome is published
- 20102010 becomes the warmest year on record
- 2010Global life expectancy reaches 70 years
- 4 January 2010Construction of Burj Khalifa
More in Evolution & life
- 18 April 1947Discovery of Mrs. Ples
- 1972Discovery of Lloyds Bank coprolite
- 1978The Laetoli footprints are uncovered
- 1995Discovery of Little Foot
- 2000Discovery of Selam
- from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022Tigray war
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.