The partial jawbone was first recovered when a fishing operation dredged the seafloor in the Penghu Channel near the Taiwan Strait. After it was sold to an antique shop, a collect

Molecular analysis has determined that a jawbone recovered off Taiwan's coast came from a Denisovan, showing that this enigmatic lineage of archaic humans once inhabited a vast expanse in eastern Eurasia in environments ranging from cold and arid to warm and humid.