The word 'Denisovan' is sometimes mentioned in media in reference to
- (a) fossils of a kind of dinosaurs
- (b) an early human species ✓ UPSC's answer
- (c) a cave system found in North-East India
- (d) a geological period in the history of Indian subcontinent
Why the answer is (b)
• Denisovans are an extinct group of archaic humans identified in 2010 from DNA in a finger bone found in Denisova Cave, Siberia — option (b).
• They lived alongside Neanderthals and modern humans and interbred with both; Denisovan DNA survives in Melanesians, Aboriginal Australians and, in smaller traces, South Asians, and includes a gene helping Tibetans live at altitude.
• They are not dinosaurs (a), a cave in India (c) or a geological period (d).
• Hence option (b).
Why the other options are wrong
- (a) fossils of a kind of dinosaurs
- Denisovans are hominins, not dinosaurs.
- (c) a cave system found in North-East India
- Denisova Cave is in Siberia, not North-East India.
- (d) a geological period in the history of Indian subcontinent
- It is not a geological period.
Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019, held on 2 June 2019. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.