Denisovan

noun

De·​ni·​so·​van də-'nē-sə-vən 

plural Denisovans

: a hominid of the Middle to Late Pleistocene known from skeletal remains found chiefly in Siberia and China and classified as either the same species (Homo sapiens) as present-day humans or as a distinct species (especially Homo longi)

Denisovans, an ancient sister group of Neandertals previously identified via DNA taken from a finger bone excavated in Siberia's Denisova Cave …

—Bruce Bower

… genetic analysis revealed a previously unknown species, the Denisovans, living in Siberia around 40,000 years ago …

—David Robson

Scientists have discovered that some people with ancestry outside Africa have DNA inherited from Neandertals or from Denisovans …

—Tina Hesman Saey

Denisovan adjective

Remarkably, that tooth was even bigger than the first, with a chewing surface twice that of a typical human molar. … Only when its DNA was tested was it confirmed to be human—specifically, Denisovan …

—Jamie Shreeve

… inhabitants of Papua New Guinea and islands northeast of Australia … seem to have inherited as much as one-twentieth of their DNA from Denisovan roots.

—Ewan Callaway

Word History

Etymology

Denisova Cave (Russian Denísova peščéra), in the Altai Krai of Siberia, Russia, where DNA of the hominids was first found + -an entry 1

Note: Denisova, feminine of Denisov, is a possessive adjective formed from the name Denis. The individual for whom the cave is named has been variously identified, as either an Old Believer (Orthodox dissenter) hermit named Dionisij who lived in the cave at the end of the eighteenth century, or a shepherd named Denis, who sheltered in the cave during inclement weather (thus Russian Wikipedia, without citing a source).

First Known Use

2010, in the meaning defined above