A tooth was excavated from a remote Russian cave in 2010. After carrying out an extensive analysis, study researchers have come to know amazing findings about a group of long-lost human relatives called Denisovans.

DNA analysis was done of the tooth discovered from the Denisova cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains. From the assessment, it has been found that Denisovans were present much earlier than thought before.

Study researchers said that a piece of Denisovan finger bone and one more tooth were also found from the cave but in different years, 2010 and 2000, and both of them date between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago.

“The new tooth is 50,000 years older than the others – this is really interesting, it shows us these guys were around for a long time”, affirmed Assistant Professor Bence Viola from the University of Toronto’s Department of Anthropology.

The researchers have termed Denisovans as humans’ long-lost cousins, who were present at the same time when both humans and Neanderthals were there. Viola said that they know that Denisovans have interbred with Neanderthals and modern humans.

One more thing being noticed by the researchers is that Denisovans had very large teeth. Viola said their tooth were around double the surface of a modern human tooth. To talk about genetic diversity, Denisovans had twice as much of it as Neanderthals and almost as much as seen in modern humans. For now, the researchers are not sure on when extinction took place.