Q. The word ‘Denisovan’ is sometimes mentioned in media in reference to

  • fossils of a kind of dinosaurs
  • an early human species
  • a cave system found in North-East India
  • a geological period in the history of Indian subcontinent

Answer: (b) an early human species

Notes:

  • Denisovans are an extinct species of hominid.
  • Fossil evidence of the Denisovans first identified in 2010.
  • The jawbone discovered in the Tibetan Plateau and dated to more than 160,000 years ago, is the first Denisovan fossil found outside the Siberian cave.
denisovan family tree