Previously unknown type of human discovered.

Anyone ever get the feeling that the world-at-large has NO respect for the past or our ancestors? Everywhere I look, even if it's in good humour, someone thinks it's funny and intellectual to talk down about humanity. We are stupid. We are lazy. We are destructive. Aliens are better.

Well then, why so many different versions of US?

The latest addition to the human tree is the Denisovans. A fossilized finger discovered in the Denisova cave in the Altai mountains. The owner of said bones was part of  a distinct group of humans that were neither Neanderthalis nor Modern humans. Basically, the Denisovans were the only kind of humans living in that cave.

They shared a common ancestor with Neanderthalis and were genetically similar to current residents of Melanesia. The current model of human (not-so)evolution is that we killed off the Neanderthalis, despite the random groups of cannibalized Neanderthal groups--- mostly families, and the fact that, aside from the Donner party and what happened in THE ROAD, we don't go around eating people.

In fact, I venture to guess that a certain other, as yet undiscovered type of hominid/humanoid once described as red-headed and gigantic in stature may have been the cause for such mass buffets of neaderthal flesh.

(to be continued...)