Anthropologists can estimate a person\u2019s height with reasonable accuracy from the long bones \u2013 your femur (thigh bone) works well. On average, the size of this bone
\nscales well with overall height, given a large samples of bones. <\/p>\n
This is exactly what a group of scientists have done using fossils dredged from the seafloor off Taiwan<\/a>. To add to the mystery, these bones are those of Denisovans, currently one of the most enigmatic species of hominins.<\/p>\n The Denisovans were a widespread species of Homo<\/em> (the genus which encompasses our own species, as well as close relatives such as Neanderthals). They were initially known only from genetic sequences that had been extracted from isolated fragments of material, such as a small finger bone, at Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. <\/p>\n The apparent absence of substantial fossil material from this species made them mysterious, although in recent years, fresh discoveries have added to our understanding. These include the Dragon Man (or Harbin) skull, recovered from a river in northeast China. DNA and protein analysis<\/a> has now linked this large skull to the Denisovans<\/a>.<\/p>\n The remarkable feature of the fossils analysed by Yousuke Kaifu, from the University of Tokyo, and colleagues, is that they were dredged from the Penghu Channel in the Taiwan Strait. <\/p>\n Most rare hominin fossils are carefully excavated, allowing researchers to record their exact position within layers of sediment and their relationship to associated animals, artefacts and environmental evidence. <\/p>\n These bones were instead recovered from the seabed among the fossilised remains of terrestrial ice age mammals, probably deposited when sea levels exposed the channel as dry land around the time when the ice age was at its height. Their precise discovery locations and geological contexts were not recorded. <\/p>\n This makes the fossils scientifically unusual: their anatomy and preserved proteins contain valuable evidence. However, much of the contextual information normally supplied by an archaeological excavation has been lost.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The bones \u2013 an incomplete femur (thigh bone) and tibia (the largest bone in the shin) \u2013 have been assigned to two Denisovans on the basis of analyses of their recovered ancient proteomes. A proteome is the collection of proteins preserved within a fossil. These proteins can retain evidence<\/a> of evolutionary relationships, even when DNA has been lost. <\/p>\n These bones produced slightly different proteome signals, which is why the authors suggest that these represent two individuals. The newly described femur and tibia are likewise not directly dated.<\/p>\n Because they were recovered by dredging and lack secure geological provenance, Aside from assigning the bones to Denisovans, the researchers have used them to The lack of context for the fossils \u2013 normally provided by the sediments in which they are recovered from \u2013 means we don\u2019t know if the two individuals lived at the same time or at least a similar interval. <\/p>\n But the bones are long and when the other body elements are scaled based on the leg bones, it suggests that these individuals were tall. In the new paper, Yousuke Kaifu and colleagues say that the estimated height of Penghu 2 (one of the newly described specimens) was approximately 1.8 metres (5’11”), with a weight of around 83kg. <\/p>\n Their estimates for the other fossil, Penghu 3, give a height of about 1.9 metres (6’3″) and a weight of about 91kg. These estimates, the team writes in their study, \u201care comparable to the largest known Pleistocene Homo<\/em> from Africa and Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n Inferring tallness as a species-level trait based on two individuals is challenging, although it has not prevented some headlines from claiming that Denisovans were tall. Think back to our walk in Trafalgar Square.<\/p>\n The dangers of reconstructing stature are illustrated by the famous Turkana Boy orRecovered long bones<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/754630\/original\/file-20260818-59-6wrkmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip\")
<\/a>
\n Clare Houck<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nthey can only be placed broadly within the Middle to Late Pleistocene, using the
\nanimal remains and preservation evidence. The Pleistocene epoch<\/a> lasted from around 2.58 million years ago until 11,700 years ago.<\/p>\n
\ninfer the stature of the two individuals. They are incomplete, which complicates
\nmatters somewhat, but skilled anatomists can be reasonably confident on the
\ncomplete bone sizes. <\/p>\nProceed with caution<\/h2>\n
\nNariokotome Boy, a remarkably complete Homo erectus<\/em> skeleton discovered in
\nKenya in 1984. He was unusual because his skull, teeth and long bones
\nwere all complete and available for study. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/290002\/count.gif\")
<\/p>\n![Clare Houck<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Turkana_Boy.jpg\"){kind=link}